I Am the Operative
by Notorious JMG
Summary: Set in the Firefly-verse, this story explores the idea of Veronica Mars, Parliamentary Operative. Crossover with "Firefly"; will eventually find its way to that thing we call LoVe - but not before I have a bit of fun with the idea of LoKay!
1. Meet Logan Echolls

Kaylee Frye tried very hard to be an independent woman. She liked to be able to do what she pleased, when she pleased. She liked the fact that she could fix a transport engine with her eyes shut before most men could even figure out why it was making that clattery noise.

The problem was, young Ms. Frye had a little touch of the boy-crazy. Sure, that came in handy from time to time – like the time Mal had walked in on her bent over _Serenity_'s engine, panties around her ankles, and _Serenity_'s old mechanic, Bester, doing his best piston engine impression directly behind her.

Ten minutes later, Bester had been fired, and Kaylee had been hired to take his place. It turned out that Bester was a lethal combination – an incompetent engineer and a boring lay. His incompetence was proven by the fact that Kaylee noticed what was wrong with _Serenity_'s engine after ten seconds of looking; his boringness was proven by the fact that she noticed it while she was on her back, Bester on top of her.

It had been much to her giddy delight that Kaylee had accepted the position as _Serenity_'s mechanic. However, it had been much to her dismay that that had begun a very long period of time during which she, in her own words, didn't have nothin' twixt her nethers that weren't run on batteries.

After Kaylee had been onboard for a little while, Simon Tam – the rich young doctor from Osiris – had come along, a cargo of his somewhat deranged sister in tow. Kaylee had found herself mentally drooling over Simon from the first time she laid eyes on him. Oh, sure, he made REALLY stupid and insensitive remarks from time to time, but for some reason, her mind kept wandering back to him.

Eventually, she was successful at seducing him – oddly enough, while in the midst of repairing _Serenity_. Much to her disappointment, he hadn't been nearly as enthusiastic as she had been hoping. In fact, after that, Kaylee had begun to have very sad suspicions that Simon was, as Jayne put it, "sly". When she asked River about it, River had just laughed, pretending to lock her mouth shut and throw away the key.

As far as the other men onboard _Serenity_ went – well, it was a complicated situation for Kaylee. First of all, there was Jayne. Kaylee had sometimes thought about Jayne, wondered exactly what he was hiding underneath those jeans of his – it had to be decent, at the very least, given that he seemed to leave a trail of fairly satisfied women in his path. But she always snapped back to reality and realized that Jayne Cobb had approximately the mental capacity of an ape. It would take a WHOLE LOT of alcohol to get Kaylee naked in a bed with Jayne.

Then there had been Shepherd Book. Kaylee had never once even looked at the Shepherd that way. He had reminded her too much of her grandfather, and besides which, he was a PREACHER! She knew, she just knew, that God would've smote her but good if she had gone after a preacher-man.

She couldn't forget about Wash. Wash had been cute. Cute and married. That second part of it made things a little difficult. In fact, during the two years they'd been on _Serenity_ together, Wash hadn't even so much as cast one lecherous eye on her. He was either terrified of Zoe, completely under her spell, or both. However, when Wash had told Kaylee that if he were unmarried, he'd take her in a manly fashion, because she was pretty – well, that had made her smile just a little bit.

And then he had died. A great big Reaver harpoon right through his gut. Kaylee couldn't believe it. She'd spent the next three nights lying in her bunk, just staring at the ceiling. What made it worse, though, was that she could hear Zoe, in her room next door, crying each night.

Finally, there was the captain. Malcolm Tight-Pants Reynolds himself. Take away the person that he was, and Kaylee would probably find herself drooling over him on a fairly regular basis. Even with the knowledge of who he was, she had found herself on more than one occasion having a distinct desire to sink her teeth into his posterior.

But then, she remembered… he's Mal Reynolds. Her captain. The man who was closer to a father or an older brother than any family member she had ever had. And when she remembered the way she looked at Mal, she realized… that was just WRONG.

And so now, as Kaylee sat on her lawn chair next to _Serenity_'s ramp, on the dusty surface of Persephone, she sighed, a small note of despair in that sigh. It had been here, right here, really not that long before that she had originally met Simon Tam. Now he was off somewhere within Eavesdown, picking up medical supplies, and doing… whatever it was he was doing.

But wait… hello, that was a pretty specimen of young man walking along the dusty path. He was looking fairly intently at each ship, as though he were looking for one ship in particular. Despite his prettiness, that intensity got Kaylee's guard up – after their experiences with Jubal Early and the Operative, there was no such thing as being to careful.

When he approached _Serenity_, Kaylee's heart started to flutter. Between the nervousness at being confronted by such a good-looking boy and the nervousness at the possibility that he was out to get the entire crew, she was one big nervous wreck. "Excuse me," he said, "do you know where I might find a ship called _Serenity_?"

Uh-oh. "Uh, I might," she replied. "May I ask what you need to find her for?"

"I'm looking for her captain," he replied. "A man named Malcolm Reynolds."

Now Kaylee was really nervous. "Mind if I ask what it is you need to be seein' the Captain about?"

Oh, shit. She had just called him the Captain. The young man recognized Kaylee's error and smiled. "The Captain?" he asked. "I take it you know him?"

Kaylee nodded her head resignedly. "This here's _Serenity_," she said, jerking her thumb over her shoulder. "Captain Reynolds, he's her master."

"Then I should assure you, I'm not here to harm the ship or Captain Reynolds," he replied. "I just need to speak with him."

"Can I give the Captain the name of who wants to speak with him, or should I just call you the Nameless Stranger?"

He laughed. "No, you can tell him that Logan wants to see him."

"Logan who?"

Logan shook his head. "Now, see, that's not fair. You know my first name, but I have no clue who you are."

Kaylee blushed bright red. "Of course… uh, I'm Kaylee Frye, ship's mechanic, and I keep _Serenity_ running tighter than a virgin in a convent."

Logan's eyes went wide and his eyebrows shot up at that remark. "Oh, God," Kaylee groaned, wishing the ground would open and swallow her up. Turning her back on Logan, she marched to the intercom, hit the button, and said, "Captain, there's a boy here named Logan who says he needs to converse with you."

"_Converse with me, Kaylee? What, have you been reading the dictionary again?_"

"Captain, if you could be so kind as to not embarrass me any more… I've already made myself look like a bit of a redneck fool in front of this boy."

"_Aw, is he a cute boy, Kaylee?_"

Logan overheard that and started laughing. "Captain, would you just shut your big damn mouth and get down here?!"

"_I'm on my way._"

Of course, it would take Mal a moment to get from the control room to the ramp, and so Kaylee had to spend an awkward moment making sure Logan didn't try to get into the ship without Mal's permission. However, she didn't trust herself to say anything, and so she just stood there, silent, staring at the ground.

Logan wasn't about to let that happen, though. "You said you're the ship's mechanic, right?"

Kaylee looked up at him shyly. "Yeah…"

"How'd that come about? Usually, ship's mechanics are old, ugly guys with big beer guts… you, on the other hand, are a pretty girl who I'd peg at about twenty, maybe twenty-one?"

A little smile made its way to Kaylee's face. "Twenty-three," she replied. "And as for how I got onboard as a mechanic… um… well, that's a story…"

And just at that moment, Mal came striding down the ramp. "Where's this boy that it's so gorram important I not embarrass you in front of?"

Kaylee sighed and rolled her eyes. "I don't know whether I oughta thank God you're here or punch you," she hissed at Mal. "That's him."

"Captain Mal Reynolds," Mal said, walking over to Logan and extending his hand. "And you are?"

"Logan Echolls," he replied.

"Echolls… Echolls…" Mal mused. "You wouldn't happen to be the same Logan Echolls whose daddy's that high-falutin wave actor Aaron Echolls, would you?"

Logan sighed, but nodded. "One and the same."

Mal cocked his head and narrowed his eyes. "So my question then, is what in the name of hell are you playin' at by losin' yourself on some Rim World and seekin' out a notorious fugitive captain?"

Logan swallowed. "My father… killed my girlfriend. He doesn't know that I know it, but I do. I wanted to get as far from Londinium as I could. I figured the Rim Worlds were a good place to go. And as for why I sought out _Serenity_… well, I had also heard that the ship has a loyal crew that happens to be in need of a pilot."

"Yeah!" Kaylee exclaimed. "Our last pilot, he-"

"No," Mal interrupted. "Don't need a pilot. Certainly don't need another rich boy runnin' from his troubles onboard."

"Captain!" Kaylee objected.

"Don't you start, Kaylee," Mal retorted, whirling toward her. "You seem to have a habit of thinkin' with your… well, I don't really know how to put it in feminine terms, but I'm sure you get the gist."

He turned back toward Logan – who had a gun out. "Whoa, now," Mal said, holding up his hands. "We don't need no trouble here."

"Let me prove my worth to you, Captain," Logan replied, quietly. He turned and pointed toward the edge of a building about a hundred feet away. "See those pigeons?"

He pointed at the six birds perched on the edge of the building, sixty feet above the ground.

"Yeah, I see 'em," Mal replied. "Worst part of Earth-That-Was to ever get out of the damn system."

"Watch this," Logan said. He pulled the slide back on his gun, lifted it with both hands, aimed, and shot six times.

All six pigeons disappeared in puffs of feathers.

Kaylee was slightly horrified by what she had seen. "Those were living creatures!" she exclaimed, an accusing tone to her voice.

"Those were flying rats," Mal shot back in disgust. "And that was a pretty piece of gunplay, Mr. Echolls. Certainly a bit more sophisticated than the brute kill-'em-all technique a certain member of my crew likes to use."

"Jayne wouldn't have shot a pigeon for no reason," Kaylee grumped.

Mal rolled his eyes. "Jayne would've shot a kitty-cat in the window of a pet shop if he thought it'd get his point across, Kaylee," he replied. "You're just a bit too _fong luh_ sometimes, _xiao meimei_."

"And sometimes you're a _go tsao de kuh-ooh duh lao bao jurn_," she shot back.

Mal's eyes widened and he turned red. "I, uh, don't let all my crew speak to me in such a fashion, Mr. Echolls. And sometimes, I do get a mighty powerful urge to duct tape this one's mouth shut and chuck her in the hold."

Logan looked between the two in no small amusement. "So, uh, just out of curiosity… do I get the job?"

"Well, Mr. Echolls, there's a few things you ought to be apprised of first. Pay sucks. Living conditions are horrible. The food is generally _gos se_. You shouldn't be surprised if on occasion you get called a _liou coe shway duh biao-tze huh hoe-tze duh ur-tze_."

Logan smiled. "I've been called worse." He paused. "Actually, in reality, that's not too far off the mark."

Mal nodded and smiled. "Well… in that case, welcome aboard."

* * *

_fong luh_ – loopy in the head  
_xiao meimei_ – little sister  
_go tsao de kuh-ooh duh lao bao jurn_ – dog-humping horrible old tyrant  
_gos se_ – dog crap  
_liou coe shway duh biao-tze huh hoe-tze duh ur-tze_ – stupid son of a drooling whore and a monkey


	2. Time to Raise Kane

_Lilly Kane_.

The name came to her, unbidden, as her shuttle floated through the black, pointed toward Sihnon.

_Lilly Kane_.

Once her childhood friend, they had grown apart as they had gotten older. Lilly had been Logan Echolls' girlfriend through school, but when she had turned eighteen, she had left him behind – a fact which he had denied to himself for months.

_Lilly Kane_.

A prodigy within the Companions' Guild. It was said that she took to the duties and responsibilities more naturally than any who had gone before her. To those who knew her, this did not come as a surprise – though they were always ambiguous on whether that was a good thing or bad.

_Lilly Kane_.

Found murdered in the backyard of her parents' home on Londinium, a place where she had not been in over a year, since she had left to become a Companion. But who had killed her?

Was it Logan Echolls, finally awoken to the fact that Lilly had left him? Had he struck out against her, jilted and jealous?

Was it Logan's father Aaron, the famous wave actor? Had he sought to exact vengeance on behalf of his son, lashing out in the abusive way for which he was infamous?

Was it Lilly's own father, Jacob Kane, president and CEO of the Kane Corporation? Was he sickened by the sight of his daughter as a Companion?

Was it Lilly's brother, Duncan, overtaken by a fit of epilepsy? Or was he perhaps being mentally controlled by Blue Sun, as had been rumored since he returned from the Academy at the age of sixteen?

Was it another Companion, jealous of Lilly's rapid rise to fame and success? Or was it perhaps a client who had felt cheated, even jilted by Lilly?

Or was it somebody else entirely?

Whoever it was that had done it, they were in serious trouble. The Alliance only punished three crimes by execution – high treason, the murder of an officer of the Alliance military, and the murder of a registered Companion.

The original investigation had been performed by the director of Alliance Federal Police Forces on Londinium, Major General Keith Mars. It had been his belief that Jacob Kane was somehow responsible for the death of his daughter. Mars had tried to keep the investigation quiet, but the Companions' Guild, upon learning of this development, had pounced on it and spread it throughout the media, anxious to visit vengeance upon the killer of one of their own.

A judge had thrown out the entire case. Jacob Kane had fled Londinium, choosing to relocate to Sihnon. A disgraced General Mars had been reassigned to oversee security on the Outer Rim planets.

But shortly thereafter, it all seemed to cease to matter anyway. A wave had come over the Cortex, telling of the horrors that the Alliance had visited upon a planet known as Miranda, horrors that had created those known simply as the Reavers.

And truly, what did the people of the Core planets care of the murder of one Companion, when it was stacked up against the story of the atrocities that caused the deaths of thirty million? What did one Companion matter compared to the growing legend of _Serenity_ and her brave crew – the valiant Captain who sought to show the world truth, the warrior woman who stood by his side, the Hero of Canton, the mechanical prodigy, the doctor, the Reader, the Companion, and the brave Shepherd and the pilot who had laid down their lives that the world might know the truth?

Of course nobody cared about Lilly Kane when placed in that context. Why talk about the depressing murder of one Companion when you could discuss and exaggerate the exploits of Malcolm Reynolds and his band of merry men? Those valiant guardians of the truth?

The pilot of the shuttlecraft laughed bitterly. _Valiant guardians of the truth, indeed_, she thought. _More like criminals_. Their actions had resulted in the loss of nearly 20,000 Alliance troops, a few of whom had been her friends.

But regardless of what had happened out there on the Rim, here in the Core, there was still an obligation to be met, justice to be served. And so, the woman at the helm of the shuttlecraft was continuing on the trail, the path to bring the killer of Lilly Kane to justice.

As her shuttlecraft entered the atmosphere, the light cast on it by the friction of entry illuminated the craft's oddity, as always. Rather than the white or grey coloring ordinarily found on Alliance shuttles, it was instead a dark green. The craft had not been built by Blue Sun, and so lacked its logo on its nose, instead bearing a small pentagon with a five-pointed star inside.

The shuttle's destination was the city of New Taipei – the location of the Sihnon headquarters of the Kane Corporation. The pilot's objective was Jacob Victor "Jake" Kane, president and CEO of the Kane Corporation.

Jake Kane had done very well for himself. Born to a family that could trace its lineage back to a family of Spanish nobility that had settled in southern California on Earth-That-Was in the eighteenth century, he had founded the Kane Corporation as a twenty year-old. Initially just an upstart software company, Kane had been awarded an exclusive technology and service contract by Blue Sun after a mere two years of existence. Jake Kane had watched with no small amount of glee as the bloated, diseased remains of the old Earth-That-Was company Microsoft finally collapsed and went down in a blaze of glory after they lost the contract to Kane.

"Alliance shuttlecraft Neptune One to Kane Control, requesting clearance to land on pad four."

"_Alliance shuttlecraft Neptune One, do you have an authorization code?_"

"Affirmative, Kane Control. Authorization code is victor mike alpha romeo sierra, parliamentary override."

"_Neptune One, please stand by._"

She smiled grimly as the channel went silent. The words "parliamentary override" usually caused somewhat of an "oh shit" reaction within an air traffic control room as the various staff on duty tripped over themselves to make sure she was accommodated in every way possible.

A moment later, Kane Control came back on the air – but it was a different, more authoritative sounding voice this time. "_Ah, Neptune One, you are cleared for immediate landing on pad four. Do you require escort?_"

"Negative, Kane Control. Neptune One now on approach."

As the shuttlecraft locked onto the Kane Corporation's approach beacon, she looked over her shoulder at the two men sitting behind her. She knew from her old Earth-That-Was history classes that at one time they would have been labeled "Latino" and "African-American", but with those labels referring to cultures that no longer existed… well, to her, they were just Weevil and Wallace.

They had been her willing accomplices for years, but now, that entailed much, much more than it had at one time. Of course, they were now officially sanctioned by the Alliance to be her willing accomplices, but that didn't necessarily make what they did any less fun than it did when they were teenagers.

"You boys ready?"

"Are we ever not, V?" Weevil replied.

She smiled and nodded, turning back toward the windscreen. The shuttlecraft slowed as it approached the pad, coming to a hover over the large number "4" and slowly descending to touch down on the pad.

As the shuttle's engines powered down, the shuttle door was pulled open. A tall black man dressed in a dark maroon suit stood outside. He looked inside, saw who the shuttle contained, and his look immediately changed to one of disgust.

"Welcome to the Kane Corporation, MA'AM," he spat out.

She smiled. "Oh, Clarence, it's so wonderful to see you, too!"

Clarence Wiedman, the head of security for the Kane Corporation, practically growled as the three black-suited figures brushed past him. It was just unnatural to have to grovel to any of the three of them.

He had to admit, though – grudgingly – that the three did cut intimidating figures as they strode through the halls of the Kane Corporation, her in her black pseudo-military uniform, the two men in their severely cut black business suits. He almost expected to see blue gloves on their hands, but was relieved to see their hands bare.

They didn't stop for anybody, and that included the receptionist in Jake Kane's outer office. They went blasting directly past her, pushed open the doors to Kane's office, and stepped inside.

A haggard-looking Jake Kane looked up from his desk, saw who was invading his office, sighed, and rolled his eyes. "Veronica Mars," he said quietly. "To what do I owe the displeasure?"

"Great to see you, too, Jake," she replied sarcastically. "You remember my associates, Mr. Navarro and Mr. Fennel?"

"Oh, of course I remember Wallace and Eli," he shot back. "I seem to remember finding Eli on his back with my daughter on top of him next to my pool."

Veronica looked sideways at Weevil. "That would've been helpful to know beforehand, Weevil," she hissed.

He shrugged. "Sorry, V."

She turned her attention back to Jake Kane. "So, speaking of your daughter. I'm sure you're aware that despite all the furor over Miranda and the crew of that Firefly these last couple weeks, the investigation is still open, with no real progress."

Kane smiled. "And who was responsible for – oh, right, that would be your father who blew that one. How's he liking being stationed on Whitefall, by the way?"

Veronica didn't respond directly to the jab, but came back with one of her own. "Awfully glib for somebody who's still a suspect in the murder case, aren't we?"

Jake smiled cruelly. "But not the prime suspect, am I?"

She deflated visibly, her shoulders slumping. "No."

Jake Kane shook his head. "Veronica Mars, tell me something, what gives you the right to come barging in here, asking questions about my daughter?"

Behind her, Clarence Wiedman's eyes went wide, and he held up a hand in warning, but Jake ignored him. "I mean, who do you think you are? You think that because your father USED TO BE the federal police chief for Londinium, you can just come in here and start… asking… questions…"

His voice trailed off as Veronica's hand went into her pocket and emerged with a small leather wallet, which she laid on Jake Kane's desk. The winged starburst logo of the Union of Allied Planets was engraved on the cover.

Jake looked at Veronica suspiciously, then picked up the wallet and opened it. His eyes widened as he examined the badge and the ident card inside. He just stared at it for a moment.

"My apologies, Veronica," he finally breathed. "I was unaware that you had been commissioned as an Operative of the Parliament."

"There's plenty you don't know, Jake," she replied, a grim tone in her voice. "For example, I guarantee that you have no idea who my prime suspect is."

"Forgive me, Veronica – uh, Operative Mars," he said, "but why is a Parliamentary Operative investigating this?"

Veronica sighed, and finally sat down in the chair facing Jake Kane. "Both professional and personal reasons, Mr. Kane," she answered. "Professionally, despite the furor over Miranda the last few days, Lilly's death is still a huge black mark on the Alliance. The murder of a Companion has the entire Guild running scared, and it makes Alliance security forces look bad."

She bit her lip. "Personally, Lilly was one of my best friends when we were younger, and even though we grew apart the last few years, I somehow feel personally responsible for finding who did this."

Veronica looked back up at Jake. "That's why I need to find Logan Echolls. And I think your son knows where he is."

Jake Kane's mouth took on a grim set, and he shook his head. "Veronica, Duncan hasn't spoken a word in weeks. Even when Logan visited him right before he took off, Duncan didn't say anything then. So, even if Logan told him where he was going, Duncan probably wouldn't be able to tell you."

Veronica knew all that. She knew that Logan had been to visit Duncan a week beforehand. She knew that Duncan had not spoken a word since Lilly died, and she had a sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with whatever had happened to him at the Osiris Academy.

But that didn't matter. "I still have to try, Jake," she said quietly. "I owe that much to Lilly."

* * *

_**Author's Note:**__ the Osiris Academy that I refer to Duncan as having been at refers to the same Academy where River Tam was experimented on. We can assume, within the context of this story, that Duncan experienced the same sort of treatment at the hands of the Alliance._


	3. Loves Logan's Lost

_**Author's Note:** just for the record, the title of this chapter is a play on the title of Shakespeare's _Love's Labour's Lost.

* * *

Finally. Finally, _Serenity_ was about to slip the confines of the planet Persephone and return to where she belonged – navigating the great blackness of outer space.

They were only taking off a day late, which Mal Reynolds continued to tell himself was a lot better than it could have been. Nonetheless, the fact that Kaylee had decided, on a whim, to strip down, clean, and rebuild the engine kind of stuck in his craw.

She hadn't notified him. Oh, no. He'd come back to the ship one day and walked into the engine room to find the engine disassembled all over the deck, and Kaylee, dressed in what seemed like next-to-nothing, on her back under the engine chassis, wiping down each part of the transmission with oil.

"What in the unholy blazes of all the blue hell is goin' on here, young Miss Frye?!" he'd demanded, dropping down to a knee so he could look under the transmission and look her in the eye. "I said I wanted to leave tomorrow, not set up a homestead!"

She slid out from under the chassis and looked straight back at him. "Captain, I found a guy who was sellin' enough brand new K64 parts to half-rebuild the engine. You think I was gonna pass that up?"

Mal cocked his head to the side. "And exactly where'd you get the kind of cash you'd need to buy enough parts to make the engine all shiny again?"

Kaylee looked like she didn't want to say, and mumbled something too soft for Mal to hear. "Sorry, darlin', I didn't catch that. You wanna run that by me again?"

She sighed. "It was Logan Echolls," she told him. "He gave me the cash I needed to buy the parts."

"Is that so," Mal said, standing up. "Well, Kaywinnit Lee, you best get my ship put back together. You don't sleep, you don't go off-board, until that engine is ready to blow a hole in space. You got me?"

She had already slid back under the engine compartment. "Shiny, Captain," he heard her grumble from underneath the chassis.

Mal's next stop had been Logan Echolls' quarters – the Shepherd's old quarters, in fact, and that was how Mal still thought of them. He knocked on the door, and then slid it open without being bidden to enter.

"Mr. Echolls," Mal said. "A word with you?"

Logan looked up at Mal, and set down the book he was reading. _The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy_, the cover said, indicating it was by somebody named Douglas Adams. "Appropriate piece of reading you got there," Mal mused.

Logan nodded. "What can I do for you, Captain Reynolds?"

Mal looked at Logan, and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "You wanna tell me why exactly you're bankrollin' my mechanic's foolhardiness?"

"You mean why I gave her the money she needed to buy parts for the engine?" Logan clarified.

"You say it your way, I say it mine," Mal shot back. "Justify."

Logan shrugged. "She said the engine could use the parts, and I had the money. I figure, if I'm going to be living and working onboard this ship, and I can do something to help, it's kind of my responsibility to do so."

Mal couldn't argue with that logic, but it wasn't in his nature to give up that easily. "Mr. Echolls, that must've been fifteen, sixteen thousand credits in parts."

"Twenty-two, actually," Logan replied. "But, you know, I've got a few million in my bank accounts. It's not like it bled me dry."

Mal narrowed his eyes, trying to see into Logan's head. If the rich boy wanted to part with a few of his credits to help out Mal's ship, he wasn't going to argue with that. But he had to have some sort of motivation beyond just wanting to help.

Oh, of course. "You tryin' to get my mechanic to do the horizontal hokey-pokey, Mr. Echolls?"

The way Logan's jaw dropped was almost comical. "I – what? I beg your pardon, Captain?"

Mal laughed. "Come on, Mr. Echolls. I've seen the way Kaylee locks those big ol' green eyes onto you and practically starts droolin'. You've only been on the ship two days, and already you have well and thoroughly supplanted the doc in her heart."

He could tell from Logan's expression that that was pretty much the last thing he had expected to hear. "Uh… I see," Logan finally managed to force out. "Let me assure you, Captain, I didn't do it because I'm trying to curry favor with Kaylee. I won't deny, she is a very attractive woman, and she certainly seems like a very nice person, but I hardly know her."

Mal nodded thoughtfully. "Well, that's good to hear, Mr. Echolls. And here I thought you were considering treating her like some sort of _jien huo_."

Logan shook his head. "No sir. I know better than that."

Mal considered that for a moment. "Let me ask you this, then. Would you ever consider making a move on Kaylee?"

Logan shrugged. "If the circumstances were right, and we both felt that way about the other…"

Mal raised an eyebrow. "I see." And with that, he turned and exited Logan's quarters, muttering, "_Chu fei wo si le,_" as he went.

And so Kaylee had spent the next forty hours working practically nonstop on the engine. Now that she was done, Mal had to admit that it seemed to be running much more smoothly and a hell of a lot more quietly.

With _Serenity_ just about ready to depart Persephone, Mal decided it was time to get Mr. Echolls in the pilot's seat. Finding him in his quarters, he got him up to the cockpit and sat him down at the right hand station.

The first thing Logan noticed was the plastic dinosaurs. "Okay, just out of curiosity, do these have any significance to the running of the ship?" he asked.

Mal nodded. "They belonged to my old pilot," he replied. "Took a Reaver harpoon through the gut, right before we got all news-media like."

Logan looked down at the pilot's console. "I'm sorry," he said quietly.

Mal shook his head. "Don't worry about it. Wash wouldn't want us gettin' all maudlin on his behalf. In fact, do me a favor."

Logan looked up. "What's that?"

"Pick up that T-Rex there – that's the big one with the nasty lookin' teeth."

Logan grew a look of confusion on his face, but complied. "Alright," Mal said, "now, point it at me, and in your most horrified voice, say, 'Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!'"

Logan cocked an eyebrow, and shook his head, but smiled. "CURSE your sudden but inevitable betrayal!"

Mal smiled as Logan said it. "Okay, I think you'll do just fine, Mr. Echolls. Now tell me. You ever flown an 03-K64 Firefly before?"

"I have," Logan replied. "Although, the K64 spacedrive had been removed."

Now it was Mal's turn to look confused. "No spacedrive?"

A slow flush began to creep up Logan's cheeks. "Uh, demolition derby on Beaumonde," he replied. "All atmospheric, you really only need the jets."

Mal's eyes widened. "Demolition derby?!" Logan didn't say anything, he just nodded. "_Lao tyen yeh_!"

Logan shrugged. "What can I say… we took these old, broken down ships, got them back in atmo-running condition, put all kinds of claws and grapples on 'em, like Reaver-style, and then just went to town."

Mal bent his neck, cradling his head in his hands in despair. "The lengths you rich Core-boys will go to for fun."

A voice came from the doorway behind them. "Did I hear my kind being disparaged?"

Mal looked up. "Doc, nice of you to join us!" he cracked sarcastically. "If Kaylee hadn't tore the engine all up and we'd left on time yesterday, you'da been left behind!"

Simon Tam fixed Mal with a look. "Kaylee waved me," he countered. "She told me we'd be taking off a day late, and if I still had business to conduct, I didn't need to worry about getting back quickly."

Mal smiled. "Sure she wasn't just tryin' to get you left behind, Doc? She's awful sore about the fact that you've been ignorin' her these last few weeks."

Simon did not look amused. "I have my reasons, Captain. I'm not trying to hurt her."

"You best not be, Doc, or I'll have you out the airlock so quick you won't have a clue why your body's imploding."

"Well, that's a lovely mental image, Captain," Simon replied dryly. He turned to Logan, and extended his hand. "Simon Tam. I'm the ship's doctor."

Logan stood and shook Simon's hand. "Logan Echolls. I'm the new pilot. You must be the other rich boy onboard who's running from his troubles."

"That would be me," Simon confirmed. "What was the Captain saying about rich Core-boys going to certain lengths for fun?"

"I used to fly a Firefly in demolition derbies on Beaumonde," Logan replied. "The Captain didn't seem to be a big fan."

Mal held up his hands. "I could quite frankly care less about what you do in your free time," he responded. "I just don't want you flyin' MY Firefly like you think you're still causin' a ruckus on Beaumonde."

"Don't worry, Captain, I won't," Logan replied sarcastically. "Unless, of course, you want me to."

"Don't even think about it," Mal hissed testily. "Now, let's see how you do. Take her out of the world."

Logan nodded. "Alright." He reached across the pilot's console, flipped the three switches to fire up _Serenity_'s jets, and engaged the thrusters.

The transport smoothly lifted off the ground, the jets howling. Logan gradually brought them around to a forty-five degree angle, sending _Serenity_ skyward and away from the Eavesdown Docks.

"Now, see, I ain't a big fan of takin' off this direction," Mal said nervously as the old Firefly shot in a diagonal line toward the sky. "Makes me nervous headed for the sky this quick."

Logan looked over at him, confused. "It's the most efficient angle for atmospheric departure."

"He's right," Simon interjected. "Uses up less fuel, and there's less drag on the hull."

Mal rolled his eyes. "Doc, if I want your opinion, I will make absolutely certain to request it. Otherwise, do me a great big favor and _nimen de bizui_."

Simon shook his head as Mal turned to Logan. "And as for you, Mr. Hot-Shot son of an actor, how the hell do you know all that fancy talk about efficient angles?"

"Degree in physics from Hearst Provincial University," Logan replied with a shrug. "Comes in useful from time to time."

Simon snorted. "Hearst," he muttered under his breath.

Logan turned to him. "Yeah, Hearst," he replied. "You got a problem with that? Where the hell did you go to school, anyway?"

Simon smiled smugly. "Cambridge."

Logan turned back to Mal. "Just a warning, Captain, I may have to kick your doctor's ass."

Mal snorted. "Be my guest."

"Heathens," Simon grumbled, as _Serenity_ passed through the last layer of the atmosphere and entered space. "Logan, if you could swing by the sickbay at some point, I need to make sure you're all up to date on immunizations and so on."

Logan nodded. "Dr. Tam."

Simon turned and walked away down the corridor. Mal looked after him, shook his head, and then looked over at Logan. "You ready for some spaceflight?"

"Indeed I am," Logan replied, a look of anticipation growing on his face.

"See the big red flashing button?"

Logan looked. Sure enough, there was a flashing red button on the console. "Yeah?"

"That engages the K64 spacedrive," Mal told him. "It's showing ready to engage, but before we do that, we want to talk to Kaylee, make sure she doesn't have a hand inside it or something."

He turned away from Logan and grabbed the squawk box for the intercom. Depressing the talk button, he said, "Kaylee, we ready for space flight?"

A moment later, her voice came back. "_Ready and waitin', Captain McDreamy!_"

A look of amusement crossed Logan's face, while Mal's eyes narrowed in confusion. He hit the talk button again. "You been watchin' those twentieth-century Earth-That-Was shows again, young lady?"

"Grey's Anatomy _was twenty-first century_," Kaylee's voice mockingly admonished him. "_Geez, Captain, get your years right!_"

Logan's face broke into a full-on smile. "Gonna come down there with the duct tape, _pien juh duh jiou cha wen_," Mal warned Kaylee.

"_Did you just call me a STUBBORN MART-_"

Mal hit a switch and cut Kaylee's voice off. "All hands, this is the Captain. We have a newbie about to hit the spacedrive button for the first time, so you might want to buckle yourselves in, hold onto something, brace yourselves, so on and so forth, because we're probably gonna encounter some turbulence, and then possibly explode. See y'all on the other side."

Logan gave Mal a dirty look as he hung up the squawk box. "Alright, Mr. Echolls, let's see what you got. Try not to blow us up."

Logan shook his head, and depressed the flashing red button. On _Serenity's_ tail, the dim glow of the spacedrive flashed to bright light. A twirling exhaust of glowing radioactive gasses began to stream from her tail, and the ship accelerated away from Persephone, disappearing into the black.

* * *

Six hours later, Logan was by himself in the cockpit. The rest of the ship was quiet, with everybody else asleep. Logan was still up here because he had found that he enjoyed flying in space immensely.

So quiet was the ship that Logan heard the soft footfall in the doorway before he actually saw her. "Are you my navigator?" he asked, without even turning around.

The thin, lithe figure of a girl who couldn't have even been twenty appeared in his vision, dropping herself into Captain Reynolds' seat on the other side of the cockpit. "I'm River," she told him. "I actually usually fly the ship when everybody's asleep – I can't hear them then."

Logan looked at her curiously. "You can't hear them? What do you mean?"

River smiled slightly. "_Serenity_ holds no secrets from me," she whispered. "I know what you think before you know what you think."

Logan cocked his head. "You're a psychic?"

"A reader," River corrected him. "Psychics contact the dead. I read your mind."

"Do you now," Logan replied skeptically. "What am I thinking about, then?"

River didn't even pause a beat. "You loved her."

Logan froze. "What did you see?"

River looked him in the eyes. "You loved her, and you lost her. It eats away at you on the inside, like a virus, like a plague. You loved and lost."

Logan sighed. "Yes," he said softly. "Yes, I loved Lilly a great deal."

River looked down and shook her head. "No, not Lilly," she responded. "There was another. There IS another. Her name is V-"

"STOP," Logan snapped angrily. "You don't know what the hell you're talking about, and I don't want to talk about it."

He stood from the chair, and stepped toward the exit, preparing to leave, but River spoke again.

"Logan," she said, and he froze. He hadn't told her his name.

"You're right, you didn't tell me your name," she continued. "You didn't need to, remember?"

"Because you're a psy- a reader," Logan replied.

"Logan, if you won't admit your feelings for… her… then, at least tell Kaylee."

Logan turned back around and looked at River, confused. "Tell Kaylee what?"

River smiled. "You think she's pretty. Tell her."

Logan's face became a mask of confusion. River turned around and faced forward. "Good night, Logan."

* * *

_jien huo_ - cheap floozy  
_chu fei wo si le_ - over my dead body  
_lao tyen yeh_ - Jesus Christ  
_nimen de bizui_ - shut the hell up  
_pien juh duh jiou cha wen_ - stubborn martinet


	4. Vessel of Peace

This wing of the Kane Estate was very quiet. It always was. It had to be.

The entire wing had been soundproofed when the family moved to Sihnon. That way, when Duncan started screaming in the middle of the night, only his caretaker – who was practically deaf – would hear. Jake and Celeste wouldn't hear, and more importantly, the neighbors wouldn't hear.

Veronica found the silence rather creepy as she walked down the corridor toward his room. She could barely even hear herself breathing, so effective was the soundproofing technology in use in this part of the mansion.

She thought back over her history with Duncan. They had known each other since they were little kids. Pretty much childhood sweethearts, most of the people who knew them had been all but certain that they were going to grow up and get married.

Thinking back on that almost made Veronica go cross-eyed. Her and Duncan? Right. Sure, maybe it was for the best that that was never going to happen. She just wished events hadn't gone the way they had.

On Veronica's thirteenth birthday, Duncan had kissed her for the first time. She practically died of shock and delight. She couldn't help but hope that that would lead to something much, much bigger.

Two weeks later, Duncan had been loaded onto a shuttle bound for Osiris. Veronica had been hurt and confused, in the way that only a pre-teen could be. Jake and Celeste Kane had tried to explain the opportunity that Duncan had been given at this academy, but Veronica had still not been happy.

Four years later, Duncan returned from the academy. He had been diagnosed with epilepsy, and told that he would no longer be able to continue in the program. His parents were disappointed, of course, but what nobody had expected was the total change in Duncan.

Most of the time, he was emotionless, a blank slate. His memory had been untouched – he remembered exactly how he had felt about Veronica at one time. However, he didn't seem to have even those emotions any longer. When he did have periods of emotionalism, it was usually despair or rage – never happiness, joy, excitement.

His condition had deteriorated over the years. Between the epilepsy and the fact that a brain scan seemed to show that his amygdale had been stripped, he turned into a shell of the person who had once been known as Duncan Kane.

The final straw, though, came just days after his twentieth birthday. He wandered out of the house one day, back toward the swimming pool, and found his sister lying dead on the deck, her skull caved in. When his parents found them, Duncan was holding Lilly's body and rocking back and forth, saying just one word, over and over: "Lilly".

Since that day, he hadn't spoken. The night after the murder, he began to scream in the middle of the night, and didn't stop for nearly half an hour. When Keith Mars began investigating Jake Kane for the murder, the decision had been made to pack up and move to Sihnon.

That's when Duncan had been placed in the soundproofed wing of their new house. Jake and Celeste rarely went down there, having hired a mostly deaf caretaker to watch over Duncan.

Now, though, Veronica was on her way down the eerily quiet hallway to see Duncan. The caretaker, an older woman, was with her. When the door was opened, the caretaker said, "Duncan, you have a visitor!"

Duncan turned to Veronica. His face was a mask of fear for a moment, but then recognition sparked in his eyes. She turned to the caretaker, and signed to her that she'd be fine. The caretaker nodded and left, closing the door behind her.

"Hello, Duncan," she said quietly. Duncan stood up from his chair, and crossed the room to Veronica. He just stood in front of her for a moment, looking at her, and then, he very stiffly reached out and hugged her.

"Oh, Duncan," she whispered, returning the hug. "What did they do to you?"

He backed away, and shrugged. He returned to his chair and sat down.

Veronica crossed to the chair facing his, and sat down as well. "What have you been up to lately, Duncan?" she asked.

He raised an eyebrow, and then reached down to the floor, picking up a large, scrapbook-looking book. He handed it to Veronica.

She opened it – and was confronted with a detail-perfect drawing of Lilly on the very first page. "Duncan… did you…" She looked up at him. "Did you draw this?"

He nodded, and then indicated that she should keep going. She turned the page, and discovered that on each page, there was a drawing of all of their friends from their teen years, all the people who had lived in Londinium Federal District 09 – Logan Echolls, Megan Manning, Cindy Mackenzie, Madison Sinclair, Richard and Cassady Casablancas.

And her. There she was, on the last page. Veronica Mars. It was very clear that Duncan had taken a great deal of time with this book. She looked up at him, and he had a big smile on his face, as if he was waiting for her approval.

She couldn't stop a tear from rolling down her cheek as she looked into his eyes. "It's beautiful, Duncan," she said quietly. She couldn't remember the last time she – or anybody – had seen a smile on his face.

He reached out, and gently wiped the tear from her cheek. She took his hand in her own, and kissed the back of his hand. "I wish I knew what they had done to you on Osiris," she whispered.

Duncan sighed, and then shrugged again, shaking his head. Veronica nodded. "I know," she said. "You don't remember yourself. We'll probably never know."

Then she sat up a little straighter. "Duncan, Logan came and saw you a couple of weeks ago. Can you tell me what he said?"

Duncan's eyes had gone wide at the word Logan. He looked straight at her, and then opened his mouth. "Logan."

Veronica's jaw dropped. "Duncan, did you just talk?" She was shocked. "Did you just say Logan's name?"

Duncan nodded. "Logan!" he said insistently.

"Yes, Logan!" Veronica said excitedly. "Did he say where he was going?"

Duncan narrowed his eyes and thought for a moment. "Logan. Peace."

Veronica cocked her head. "Peace?"

Duncan sighed and looked at the ceiling. "Peace… um, Vessel of Peace."

She folded her arms. "Logan is on a vessel of peace. Is that a hospital ship?"

Duncan shook his head insistently. "Logan, Vessel of Peace in the Valley!"

For some reason that triggered something in Veronica's mind, but she wasn't sure what. "Logan's on a vessel of peace in the valley. Is that on Londinium, or on Sihnon?"

He threw his hands up toward the sky. "The black!"

"Logan's on a spaceship!"

Duncan nodded excitedly. "Logan, Vessel of Peace in the Valley, the Black!"

Veronica moved her hand to her ear and activated her commlink. "Wallace, it's Veronica. I need you to run a database search on any spaceships that might be named Vessel of Peace, or Valley of Peace, or Peace Valley."

"_No problem, V,_" she heard. "_I'll get right on that._"

She looked back at Duncan. "Thank you, Duncan," she said. "I'm gonna get Lilly's killer, okay?"

Duncan nodded. "Love Lilly."

Veronica began to tear up again. "I did too, Duncan. That's why I have to do this."

Seeing her tears, Duncan stood up. Veronica stood up with him, and Duncan hugged her – but he wasn't stiff this time. His embrace made her feel safe and protected, even though he was an invalid and she was a Parliamentary Operative.

He continued to hold her until she stopped crying. Finally, Veronica pulled back and wiped her nose. "Duncan, do you want to see your mom?"

His eyes brightened. "Mom?"

"Yes, Duncan. Let's go see your mom."

Taking him by the hand, she guided Duncan out of the room and down the hallway. His caretaker saw them coming and jumped up to block their path. "No," Veronica insisted, shaking her head. _He's okay. He's just going to go see his mother_, she signed.

The woman sighed and made a worried face, but shrugged, as if to say, _I wash my hands of this_.

Veronica opened the door, and guided Duncan through the living room, toward Celeste Kane's office. She knocked on the door, and then opened it. "Celeste?"

The Kane matriarch turned from her cortex terminal. Her eyes widened when she saw Duncan. "Duncan?!"

"He wanted to see you," Veronica said softly.

"How could you know –"

Celeste was cut off by her son. "Mom!"

"DUNCAN!" she screamed happily, running around the desk to Duncan. She practically tackled him, she hugged him so hard. Duncan laughed and hugged her back. "Mom!"

Veronica began to back away, leaving Celeste and Duncan to themselves. As she was about to turn around, though, Celeste looked up at her and made eye contact. For the first time in nearly a year, her look held something other than hatred for Veronica.

"Thank you, Veronica," she said softly.

Veronica nodded, and turned, heading for the door.

* * *

As the shuttle lifted off from the landing pad at the Kane Mansion, Veronica finally found her voice again. "Any luck, Wallace?"

Wallace shook his head. "Either the ship has changed its name, or it just doesn't exist."

"What did Duncan say, exactly, V?" Weevil asked.

"He said, 'Logan, Vessel of Peace in the Valley, the Black'," she replied.

"That could be something Biblical, you know," Weevil replied. "And you know, my grandma always used to say, when in doubt, go see God."

Veronica looked over her shoulder. "A principle which I'm certain you've applied on a regular basis, Weevil," she responded sarcastically.

"Hey, V, I am what I am," he replied.

"Well, Weevil, I think we should go see a Shepherd. How 'bout you?"

"Let's go see a Shepherd, V."

Twenty minutes later, Neptune One touched down in front of the New Taipei First Church of God in Christ. Veronica shuddered. "I always feel like I'm going to be struck down when I come within a hundred yards of a church," she said.

"That's because you're a SINNER, Veronica Mars!" Wallace shot back, doing his best wavevangelist impression. "Praise Jesus!"

She laughed and shook her head. "Moron."

Weevil popped open the hatch, and the three headed into the church. They followed the signs that said "Office," and found themselves facing a receptionist.

"Is the Shepherd available?" Veronica asked her.

"May I tell him who's inquiring?" the receptionist replied, answering a question with a question.

Veronica sighed. "I'm a Parliamentary Operative, and I'm seeking a little… spiritual guidance."

The receptionist made a face at the word "Operative", but nonetheless hit the intercom button. "Shepherd Capistrano, there's a young lady out here who says she's a Parliamentary Operative and needs to speak with you on a matter of spiritual guidance."

Almost immediately, the office door popped open. A balding man who looked to be in his mid fifties stepped out. "Ted Capistrano!" he introduced himself. "Please, come in!"

Veronica, Weevil, and Wallace followed him back into his office. "And you are…"

"Veronica Mars," she introduced herself. "Parliamentary Operative. These are my associates, Wallace Fennel and Eli Navarro."

"Mr. Fennel, Mr. Navarro," Shepherd Capistrano said, shaking their hands. They sat. "And Ms. Mars, would you happen to be related to –"

"General Keith Mars, former chief of the federal police for Londinium?" Veronica finished. "Yeah, he's my dad."

"So," Shepherd Capistrano began, moving behind his desk. "Would it be safe to assume that you are here on business related to the investigation into the murder of Lilly Kane?"

"It would be," Veronica replied. "So, first things first. Did you do it?"

The Shepherd raised his eyebrows. "Did I – no, I did not kill Lilly Kane. I had never even heard of Miss Kane –"

"I'm joking, Shepherd," Veronica said, an amused tone in her voice. "No, what I really wanted to ask was if a certain phrase meant anything to you, or if it has any Biblical significance."

"Hit me," Shepherd Capistrano said.

"Vessel of Peace, in the Valley."

Capistrano leaned back in his chair, looking thoughtful. "Hmmm," he said. "Valley… I would say there's a safe bet that that refers to the twenty-third Psalm, specifically the passage regarding the Valley of the Shadow of Death. As far as Vessel of Peace goes… I can think only that that would refer to Christ."

Veronica nodded. "I see," she replied. "I wish that that made sense in the context in which it was given to me."

"What was the context?"

She sighed. "That's where Duncan Kane told me I could find Logan Echolls."

Shepherd Capistrano's eyes went wide, and he sat up quickly. "Duncan Kane spoke?!"

Veronica nodded. "He said that Logan was on a Vessel of Peace, in the Valley, and that it was a spaceship."

"Oh," Shepherd Capistrano said. "Well, that makes it much easier."

"What do you mean?"

"He's referring to the spaceship _Serenity_, Miss Mars. Vessel of Peace, in the Valley? Refers to a ship named after the Battle of Serenity Valley.

"Find _Serenity_. You'll find Mr. Echolls."


	5. Admissions

Three weeks now that Logan had been on _Serenity_.

Three weeks that he'd been able to keep his secrets to himself – well, with the exception of River. She knew every thought that went through his damn head.

That had been somewhat embarrassing the night before. He had been up for almost twenty-four hours straight, piloting _Serenity_ through some bizarre sort of ion storm, and had let his mental guards down.

At dinner, he had found himself tiredly staring at Kaylee Frye – and before he realized it, he had found himself wondering what she looked like naked. Then, he'd started creating mental imagery –

Just before he realized that River was staring directly at him. She had let out a little giggle and an amused smirk appeared on her face. She opened her mouth to say something, but Logan just pointed and gave her a dirty look.

And now, Logan was awake after eight hours of blissful sleep. He was headed for the cockpit to relieve River – although she usually stuck around the cockpit for a couple of hours. Despite the fact that she could read every single thought that went through Logan's head, she did enjoy talking, and as loath as Logan was to admit it, she made pretty good conversation.

But this morning, he wasn't exactly looking forward to sitting and speaking with River. He was quite certain that the night before was going to come up, and that just wasn't something he really wanted to talk about right at the moment.

Interestingly enough, River didn't say a thing when he walked into the cockpit. She just let a little sort of half smile play over her lips as Logan came in and took his seat at the pilot's station. "Morning, Logan."

"Good morning, River."

"We'll reach Greenleaf in three hours."

"Good to know."

Silence. Logan concentrated on the pilot's display as if it were the most important thing in the world, pausing to move a plastic dinosaur out of the way of the position indicator.

"River, shouldn't we have reached Greenleaf an hour ago?"

"Engines are having problems."

"What kind of problems?"

River smiled at him. "Maybe you should talk to Kaylee."

Logan threw his hands up in the air. "And there it is," he said sarcastically. "I was wondering how long it was going to take for her to come up."

River sighed in exasperation. "Logan. She likes you, and I know you like her."

Logan shook his head. "I can't let myse-"

River cut him off. "Don't bullshit me, Logan," she said, rolling her eyes. "Every time we make planetfall and she wants something, whether it's for the engines, whether it's for her room, whether it's a box of strawberries, you buy it for her."

"So I'm being nice," Logan growled. "So sue me. I've got a few million credits rolling around, I can spare a few on Kaylee."

River smiled and cocked her head to one side. "Oh, Logan. I saw your thoughts last night. They were, as Shepherd Book would've said, 'impure'."

Logan raised an eyebrow. "And you've never had impure thoughts?"

River shrugged. "Not about Kaylee Frye."

Logan blew his breath out. "Look. We're not having this conversation, okay?"

She nodded. "Okay."

Then, without warning, River turned to the navigator's panel and pushed a button, activating the intercom. "Kaylee!" she called. "Logan Echolls thinks you're pretty, he wonders what you look like naked, and he wants to _chur ni-duh_."

Logan stood up so fast that he rammed a knee into the underside of the pilot's station, knocking the plastic dinosaurs off onto the floor. "_Tah mah duh hwoon DAHN!_" he swore, shooting a filthy look at River. "I cannot believe you would pull that kind of _gos se_ on me! What the hell is wrong with you?!"

River had a serene look on her face, but Logan was getting pretty worked up. He was about to go on a second shouting jag when Mal Reynolds popped his head into the cockpit. He took one look at Logan's bright red face and quickly interposed himself between the two.

"Okay, okay, _ee-chee shung-hoo-shee_," Mal said soothingly. "No reason to be havin' a shoutin' match up here."

"We wouldn't be having a shouting match if this _tah-shr suo-yo dee-yure duh biao-tze duh mah_ hadn't announced to the general public that I may or may not have something of an interest in Kaylee!" Logan growled.

Mal raised an eyebrow at Logan's insult, and then he heard River's breathing getting faster. He turned around, and saw that she looked just about ready to attack Logan. "Okay, okay, little albatross, I think you need to just take a seat and cool your jets a bit."

He turned to Logan. "And I think you need to _kwai chur hun-rien duh di fahng_."

Logan threw his hands up in the air in disbelief. "Fine. You know what, fine. She can pilot the ship the rest of the way to Greenleaf. She can pilot it all the way to hell, as far as I'm concerned. I'm gonna go blow myself out an airlock."

He stomped out of the cockpit. Mal watched him go for a moment, and then turned. Picking up the dinosaurs, he put them back on the pilot's station, and then sat down in Logan's seat.

Mal turned his chair and looked at River. "Alright, little one," he said, shaking his head. "You can't be doin' that kind of thing to a man. It's humiliatin'."

River shrugged. "He wasn't going to tell her."

"And that's his right," Mal replied.

"I'll be sure to ask Inara about that," River grumped. Mal narrowed his eyes.

"Yeah, you… uh, you do that," he spat out, unable to find a comeback. _Dammit!_

* * *

Logan made himself very scarce. Hiding in the portside shuttle, the one NOT occupied by Inara Serra, he simply sat there in the dark for nearly an hour and a half, before somebody knocked on the door.

A moment later, it slid open, and Inara poked her head in. "Logan?" she asked. "Are you in here?"

He was tempted to stay silent and just let her think he wasn't, but she brought the lights up a little, revealing him sulking in the corner. "Yeah, I'm here," he muttered.

"Are you alright?" Inara sat down in a chair, turning it to face him. "I heard that you and River had a little blowup in the cockpit earlier."

Logan snorted. "Didn't you hear the P.A. announcement that preceded it?"

Inara nodded slowly. "I did," she said, "but Kaylee didn't. She was asleep, and had the general comm off. She doesn't know what River said, and everybody else has kind of agreed to keep it that way."

She paused for a moment. "Although I did have to threaten Jayne with permanent damage to get him to keep his mouth shut."

Logan smiled grimly. "Okay, but still. River can read my thoughts, and it's not like what she was saying was a lie."

"I could tell," Inara replied. "It's been obvious since the day you bought Kaylee all those engine parts. You like her, but you're conflicted."

He laughed bitterly. "Not me," he muttered sarcastically. "Who could imagine that I would be CONFLICTED?"

"Do you want to talk about it?" Inara asked.

"Are you gonna charge me?" Logan shot back.

A hurt look crossed Inara's face, but just as quickly disappeared. "No, Logan," she replied. "I may be a Companion, but I'm also somebody who has learned how to help a person through emotional problems. It's part of what being a Companion is all about."

Logan sighed, and then was silent for a moment. When he finally spoke, his voice was very small and quiet. "Did you know Lilly Kane?"

Inara took a moment to reply. "I met her a few times," she said slowly, "but I never really knew her. What I knew of her was that she was a prodigy of sorts, the only woman we had ever seen to go into Companion training at eighteen and do as well as she did. She took to it as though she had been raised in a Companion house."

Logan sighed again, but it sounded almost as though he was choking back a sob. "She… she was my first girlfriend," he said softly. "When she left to go become a wh… Companion, it just about tore my heart out. It was as though I wasn't good enough for her, as though Londinium wasn't good enough for her anymore."

He sniffed, and ran a hand across his face. "I always hoped, held out hope that she would leave the Madrassa House and come back home. Come back to me. So when she was found…"

That's when his voice broke, a sob escaping. He buried his head in his arms, his shoulders silently heaving up and down. Inara laid a hand on the back of his neck and gently rubbed it, trying to soothe him a little.

After a moment, he sat up and took a deep breath. Wiping his nose, he said, "It got worse, though. After Lilly left, there was a friend of hers – a friend of mine, too, I guess. Her name is Veronica, and…"

A smile started to play itself across Logan's lips. "I really thought the whole 'verse revolved around her. I don't know how it happened, but I fell head over heels for her."

He sighed. "The problem was, she had been through some rough times in her life. Her childhood sweetheart, Lilly's brother Duncan, had been shipped off to some academy when Veronica was thirteen. Then, her mom left her and her dad when she was sixteen. She had a really hard time trusting people."

Logan leaned his head back until it touched the wall behind him. "And I didn't help. I was so angry at the world about Lilly that I kept screwing things up with her."

He brought his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them, almost like a small child would. "And then Lilly died. Veronica's dad was the chief of the federal police on Londinium, and he thought that Lilly's father, Jake Kane, had done it."

Logan shook his head. "I couldn't believe that he would do that. We all knew there was no way that Mister Kane would've done that, and I stayed loyal to the Kane family. I told Veronica she had to choose between her father or me."

Inara sighed and shook her head as well. "That was probably not the wisest choice, Logan."

He looked up, his eyes suddenly ablaze with anger. "You think I don't know that?!" he spat. "It was probably the stupidest thing I've ever done in my life!"

Most women would've recoiled at Logan's outburst, but Inara had seen much, much worse in her time. She just continued to look at Logan, unfazed.

He seemed to deflate almost immediately. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "That was uncalled for."

"It's alright, Logan," Inara replied. "Go on."

Logan breathed deeply. "Anyway, about four months after Lilly died, I found these video recordings of my dad having sex with Lilly – and they were dated long before she was a Companion. That's when I knew – I just knew – it had to have been him that killed her. If those had gotten out, it would've ruined him."

He smiled bitterly. "And one would think that's the worst of it, right?" Logan shook his head. "But no. Because two months after that, a cadet from the federal police academy got commissioned as a Parliamentary Operative. Guess who."

"Veronica?" Inara asked.

"Right in one," Logan sighed. "And that's when I knew I had to leave. I couldn't, I wouldn't watch as the woman I used to love tore my family apart. Even though I know my dad's guilty as sin, I just don't think I could bear to see the look in her eyes when she finds out."

Inara shook her head. "Logan, what your father did is not your fault. If Veronica's a good person, I'm sure she'd recognize that."

She stood up. "But for the here and now, a good place for the healing to begin would be for you to stop bottling up how you feel about Kaylee. If you like her, if you want to get to know her better and possibly take it somewhere, you need to go tell her."

"I don't know," Logan said. "I'm a screwed up person –"

"- on a ship FULL of screwups," Inara interrupted him. "Just tell her, please?"

Logan nodded. "Okay," he finally conceded.

* * *

Half an hour later, Logan was pacing outside the entrance to the engine room. He had been thinking about going in the entire time, but couldn't bring himself to go. He kept thanking God that Kaylee had been under the K64 drive the entire time, working on it to fix whatever problem River had mentioned –

"Logan?"

Oh, shit. She wasn't under the drive anymore.

He turned to face her. "Kaylee, can we talk?"

She wiped a grease smudge off her forehead with her sleeve. "Sure, Logan, what's up?" she asked, an unmistakable note of hope entering her voice.

"Listen," he said. "I, um, I…"

_You're pathetic, Echolls_, he heard in his head. _Just tell her!_

Logan took a deep breath. "Okay, so I like you. You're cute, you're always happy, and, um, I can't help but smile when I see you."

As he spoke, Kaylee's face broke into a huge smile. She didn't say anything for a moment after Logan stopped talking. "You know, I've heard some bad ones in my time, and that was pretty much as far from a bad one as you can get," she finally said.

"Okay," Logan replied slowly. "So…"

"So…" Kaylee said, "I have an engine to fix."

Logan's face fell, and seeing that, Kaylee quickly added, "But why don't I come up to the cockpit when I'm done here?"

A faint smile drew itself on Logan's face. "I think I'd like that."

Kaylee smiled again, then bounced up on her tiptoes and kissed Logan on the cheek. "I'll see you then, Logan."

He watched as she turned back toward the engine room and slid back underneath the space drive. Logan executed a left face and headed toward the cockpit.

He was practically skipping when he reached the front of the ship. Mal turned his head, hearing Logan approaching.

"My, but aren't you in a vastly improved sort of mood," Mal cracked.

"Indeed I am," Logan confirmed.

"Well, we're about an hour out of Greenleaf," Mal said. "You want to take it from here?"

Logan just grinned and nodded. "Alright then!" Mal exclaimed, standing. "Don't crash us, okay?"

"I haven't yet, have I?"

"First time for everything," Mal grumbled on his way out of the cockpit.

River hadn't said a word since Logan entered the cockpit, but out of the corner of his vision, he could see a smile growing on her face. Finally, she just couldn't take it anymore.

"I told you so," she said softly.

Logan rolled his eyes and laughed. "Oh, shut up."

* * *

_chur ni-duh_ - screw you  
_tah mah duh hwoon dahn_ - mother fucking son of a bitch  
_gos se_ - crap  
_ee-chee shung-hoo-shee_ - let's all take a deep breath  
_tah-shr suo-yo dee-yure duh biao-tze duh mah_ - mother of all whores  
_kwai chur hun-rien duh di fahng_ - walk away very quickly


	6. The Nearness of You

Five weeks now since Duncan had told Veronica where Logan was.

Four weeks that she had been on the Alliance cruiser _Cristóbal Colón_, searching for _Serenity_. Unfortunately, it had been a cold trail.

On the Outer Rim worlds, shipping records were unorganized, at best. _Serenity_ might have been on the moon Bellerephon two weeks beforehand. Then again, it might have been twelve months. Veronica was not pleased whatsoever with the records.

She was starting to feel tempted to bring her father into the matter. He might have been essentially banished to the Outer Rim, but he was still a Major General in the Alliance Federal Police, and he could probably do some ass-kicking and name-taking if need be.

But Keith Mars was an option of last resort. Veronica didn't think that the Parliament would look very happily on a Parliamentary Operative bringing in the Federal Police.

Eyewitnesses, of course, were even more unreliable. There were reports of 03 K64 Firefly-class transports popping up everywhere from Londinium to Lilac. There were also eyewitness reports of Logan Echolls popping up on Persephone, Higgins' Moon, Whitefall, Greenleaf, and Beaumonde.

But nobody could remember exactly when they saw Logan, and as far as the Firefly-class appearances went, according to the Cortex, there were four hundred seventy-two of that class of transport legally registered with the Alliance.

God knew how many more were flying around unregistered.

The thing was, every time she turned around, she swore she was going to find Logan right behind her. She was certain she could feel him close by. But she was starting to think that perhaps her mind was playing tricks on her.

Veronica broke from her reverie. "So, Captain McManus, why exactly can't we track _Serenity_'s pulse beacon?" she asked the ship's captain, irritably. "Every registered ship is supposed to have one onboard."

"You can't track _Serenity_'s pulse beacon because her captain tore it out in order to avoid certain death," a smooth, cultured voice sounded from behind her.

Veronica turned, wondering who exactly that was. A tall black man strode across the bridge toward her. "And just who the hell are you?"

"I have no name," he replied. "I am, like yourself, an Operative."

"Well," Veronica replied sarcastically. "Isn't this special. Two Parliamentary Operatives in one place. But exactly how the hell do you know this about _Serenity_?"

He smiled. "I know Malcolm Reynolds, Operative Mars. I tracked him and his crew of misfits deep into Reaver space, and then back out again. I nearly killed him myself."

He paused, his smile fading. "Captain Reynolds got the better of me, Operative Mars. If I could not defeat him, what chance do you stand?"

Veronica narrowed her eyes at this nameless stranger. "What the hell exactly does that mean?"

The Operative shook his head. "It means, Ms. Mars, that Malcolm Reynolds was an infantry sergeant in a bloody war of attrition when you were learning to tie your shoes. He is, to put it bluntly, a sneaky son of a bitch. Your entire experience with the military is through your father. You have no chance against Malcolm Reynolds."

Veronica crossed her arms. "Thanks for the vote of confidence, Operative. If you're so sure of everything, how do you know I couldn't order my two associates to disable you – permanently?"

The Operative gave her a look of amused disbelief. "That would be a foolish order, Ms. Mars. Mr. Navarro and Mr. Fennel both have old injuries that would allow me to very easily disable both of them before they could even lay a hand on me."

Veronica sighed in resignation. "Alright. Then what do you suggest we do?"

The Operative turned to Captain Reginald McManus. "Captain McManus, kindly set in a course for Sector 697, the moon Phoenix."

Veronica's jaw dropped in horror. "Sector 697?! What the hell? That's two weeks out of our way!"

The Operative raised an eyebrow. "It is also the location of the most powerful communications and tracking devices in the system," he replied. "It was built by a man of absolute genius. Victor Goldman."

"Who the hell –" Veronica began to ask, but Weevil cut her off.

"Victor Goldman," he said softly, almost reverently, his eyes wide. "I remember him. He was Mr. Universe!"

"Precisely, Mr. Navarro," the Operative intoned. "From Phoenix, we shall broadcast a wave to _Serenity_, and specifically to your Mr. Logan Echolls. It will reach him, without question."

Veronica rolled her eyes. "So it reaches him," she said. "And then?"

"Operative Mars, you are simply not thinking outside the box," the Operative replied, the first hint of irritation beginning to sound in his voice. "Embedded within the wave is an auto-reply protocol, coded to activate upon acknowledgment by Logan Echolls. When we receive the auto-

reply, we will have _Serenity_'s location AND her computer codes, and we will be able to track her wherever she goes."

Behind her, Wallace whistled. "Damn," he said. "This guy's good."

* * *

"Captain, the cruiser is breaking orbit," Logan called over the intercom.

Mal joined Logan and River in the cockpit a moment later, just in time to watch the huge beetle-shaped cruiser break its orbit around Pelorum. A moment later, its rear engines glowed with great intensity, and then the enormous spaceship rocketed out of orbit.

"Did we ever get an ident on her?" Mal asked.

"Yes," Logan replied, flicking a switch. "According to the Cortex, that was the Alliance cruiser _Cristóbal Col__ó__n_. Nineteen days out of Londinium, on a search mission."

Mal furrowed his brow. "Who for?"

Logan shook his head. "That's apparently classified."

Mal didn't say anything, just turned a worried look toward River – but she shook her head. "They weren't coming for me," she said quietly. "I would've felt it if they were."

Then she cocked an eyebrow. "_Cristóbal Col__ó__n_," she said. "Christopher Columbus. 'Discoverer' of the 'New World'. Destroyer of the Native American populations. Why would the Alliance choose to name a ship after him?"

Mal shrugged. "The Alliance does some powerful strange things from time to time, young lady. I chose to stop tryin' to understand their foolhardiness a good long while ago."

Then he turned his attention back to Logan. "Now, Mr. Echolls. As for you, Kaylee has requested your kind assistance in the engine room."

Logan looked back at Mal in confusion. "My assistance? I don't have a clue when it comes to engines."

"That would be exactly what I said to her as well," Mal shot back. "However, she did inform me that she had somethin' a little tight that needed loosenin', and that you were the best fella for the job."

Logan took a moment to digest that statement – and then his eyes went wide and his face turned bright red as it sank in. River looked from Mal to Logan, her eyes wide as well – and then burst out laughing.

Mal, on the other hand, looked none too pleased. "River, might I have a moment with Logan, please?"

River just nodded and dashed from the cockpit as quickly as she could. Mal pressed a button, and the door slid shut. He then sat down in the seat just vacated by River Tam.

Mal just stared at Logan for a moment. Logan stared right back. Finally, Mal spoke.

"Alright, Logan, you listen to me, and you listen to me good. I ain't gonna lie and say that I'm a real big fan of the idea of Kaylee wantin' you to go back there and, uh…" He paused for a moment, narrowing his eyes. "Lubricate her spacedrive. So let me be crystal clear about something."

He crossed his arms. "You hurt Kaylee in any way, and I'll make you wish you'd stayed back with the Mudders on Higgins' Moon. Shiny?"

Logan just stared back at Mal for a moment. Finally, he cleared his throat and said, "I'm sorry. You lost me back at 'lubricate her spacedrive'. Where the HELL did you come up with that metaphor?"

If looks could kill, Logan would've been a dead man. After withering for a moment under Mal's glare, he grimaced, gave Mal a thumbs up, and said, "Understood, sir."

Logan stood up, opened the door, and headed off down the corridor. A moment later, River popped back into the cockpit.

"Got a new task for you, little Albatross," Mal said. "I want you to keep a weather eye on Logan and Kaylee."

River raised an eyebrow. "So… I can stop Logan just in case he starts threatening Kaylee."

"No," Mal grumbled, "so that in case I get cranky and decide to go give them a piece of my mind – or, in Logan's case, a piece of my fist – you can stop me."

River nodded. "I… see."

Mal turned to her. "Go now, River, before I go decide that Mr. Echolls'd be better off breathin' in a vacuum."

* * *

Logan was practically running by the time he reached the engine room. He poked his head in. "Captain Reynolds said you wanted to - huh?"

There was a note stuck on the spacedrive. _You've been a very bad boy_, it said. _Now go to your room_.

"What the hell?" Logan muttered. He was suddenly filled with a mixture of both excitement and trepidation. What exactly did Kaylee have up her sleeve? She wasn't going to turn out to be some crazed dominatrix type, was she?

When Logan reached his quarters, he realized the light was on. Well, somebody was definitely in there. He hadn't left the lights on.

Very slowly, he opened the door, and stuck his head inside. The sight that greeted him nearly made his eyes pop out of his head.

Kaylee sat on his bed, her legs crossed, dressed in a very skimpy sheer pink nightie – and absolutely nothing else. "Hello, Logan," she said sweetly.

"Uhhhh…" Logan suddenly found himself without the power of speech.

Kaylee stood, allowing Logan to see, well, pretty much everything as he came the rest of the way into the room and closed the door behind him. He had to physically keep his jaw shut.

"Been a long, long time since I struck a boy speechless," Kaylee remarked with a grin. "You must like what you see!"

Logan did, in fact, like what he saw. It was by far the most of Kaylee he had seen since he admitted to liking her two weeks beforehand. Then he realized, she was also without the usual grease smudges that adorned her arms and face in most situations.

"You… uh…" His voice came out as more of a croak. Logan swallowed and cleared his throat. "You clean up, uh, really, REALLY nice," he managed to say. "I mean, wow. Oh my goo-"

His voice was cut off as Kaylee stood on her tiptoes and pressed her lips against his. When she drew back, Logan tried to say something else, but Kaylee pressed a finger against his lips. "No more talking, Logan," she giggled. "You're starting to sound like a blithering idiot."

Logan was going to object, but then realized she was right, and simply shrugged. "Now, why don't we see what you have to offer?" Kaylee said, very slowly unbuttoning the top button of Logan's shirt.

* * *

River had followed Logan from a fairly inconspicuous distance, and had parked herself just down the hall from his quarters, in front of the door to her own quarters, through which she could dive to unseen safety if need be.

Once the door shut, she could no longer hear what Logan and Kaylee were saying, but Kaylee's giggle was unmistakable. There was muffled speaking from Logan, and then Kaylee giggled again.

There was no sound from Logan for a moment, but then there was a groan. That groan turned into a combination of groans, moans, and other assorted sounds that were clearly coming from both Logan and Kaylee.

River's eyes grew wide. Those weren't exactly the sounds that had come from Kaylee and Simon that time she had seen them in the engine room. In fact, there was a WHOLE lot more noise coming from Logan's room.

Then, there was a high-pitched shriek from Logan's room – Kaylee's voice. River jumped up in alarm, but then furrowed her brow in confusion as the shriek faded away slowly, rather than dropping off.

River slowly crept to Logan's door. That's when Kaylee started screaming.

* * *

"_CAPTAIN!_"

Mal jumped in his seat and hit the intercom button. "River?! Is somethin' goin' on?!"

"_Captain, Kaylee's screaming for some reason._"

Mal's eyes widened in alarm. "Is she sayin' anything?"

"_Uh…_" River was silent for a moment, as she was clearly trying to make out Kaylee's voice. "_She's just saying 'Oh God,' over and over._"

"Oh, good Lord," Mal grumbled in disgust. "Okay, River, just forget about followin' them, alright? They'll be fine. In fact, I'd'a been a lot better off if I hadn't told you to go followin' them."

* * *

The knock on the door of the shuttle startled Inara. She hadn't been expecting any visitors – or at any rate, any visitors who would afford her the courtesy of knocking.

Standing, she crossed to the door and opened it. There stood River, a look of confusion on her face.

"River?" Inara asked. "What's wrong?"

River looked up at her. "Inara… can you explain sex to me?"

Inara raised an eyebrow. "Um…"

She thought for a moment. River had been sent to the Osiris Academy at a young age, and had probably never gotten the birds and the bees from her parents. "River, you might want to come in and have a seat. This could take a while."


	7. We Used To Be Friends

The approach to Sector 697 was rather eerie. The orbit around the moon Phoenix was still littered with the wreckage of two fleets – one Alliance, one Reaver. It reminded Veronica of something she'd seen in an old twentieth century television show – if she remembered correctly, it was an episode of _Star Trek_, where one Borg ship had laid waste to a Starfleet task force near the star Wolf 359.

But that had simply been ancient video images. This was real. This was right in front of her. That which remained of a battle that had taken place not six months before.

"There are bodies out there," a voice said softly behind her, making her jump. She turned to see the Operative standing behind her. "Soldier and Reaver alike, expelled from their ships by loss of pressure."

Veronica closed her eyes and shuddered. What a horrifying thought.

"I knew some of the people who died here," she said sadly. "Richard and Cassady Casablancas, Casey Gant, Troy Vandergraff… they were all onboard the cruiser _Nürburgring_ when it broke apart and fell through the atmosphere."

The Operative was silent for a moment. "I, too, was on the _Nürburgring_," he finally said. "I was one of the lucky few who reached an escape pod in time."

Veronica fell silent and remained that way. A few moments later, the _Cristóbal Colón_ entered Phoenix's atmosphere and began descending toward the surface.

It was approximately five miles from the only landing field large enough for the _Cristóbal Colón_ to Mr. Universe's abandoned communications facilities. As the cruiser approached the surface, Veronica left the bridge and headed for the shuttle bay, with the Operative, Wallace, and Weevil in her wake.

The cruiser was settling to a rest when its shuttle bay doors opened. A moment later, out flew the dark green shuttle designated Neptune One. It rose quickly above the cruiser, and then rocketed off in the direction of the communications facility.

The flight passed in brief silence. Barely three minutes after they had taken off from the _Cristóbal Colón_, the Operative pointed to what looked like a landing strip. "Land there," he instructed Veronica.

As Veronica brought the shuttle down onto the landing strip, she noticed that it was very scarred – as if something had crashed there. "What happened here?" she asked.

"It was _Serenity_," the Operative replied. "She was hit by a Reaver EMP and lost power. With no control, she dropped like a rock. Her pilot managed to get the jets back online, but it was far, far too late. She hit the landing strip at over three hundred miles per hour, and was nearly torn apart."

Veronica narrowed her eyes. "They REBUILT a Firefly?"

The Operative shrugged. "It was their way of memorializing their lost crew," he replied. "Their pilot, one Hoban Washburne, was killed during the landing when a Reaver harpoon pierced the cockpit. They also lost Shepherd Derrial Book and Victor Goldman."

"How'd they die?" Weevil asked. "Mr. Universe would've been down here, wouldn't he?"

The Operative was silent for a moment. "I killed them," he finally said, his voice quiet and cold.

Veronica's eyes widened, but she simply stared ahead, bringing Neptune One down onto the landing strip. The shuttle slowly came to a stop in front of a large, battle-scarred blast door.

She turned to the Operative. "So, explain to me why you killed a Shepherd and Mister Universe."

The Operative shook his head in regret. "It was necessary," he replied. "I had to flush out Malcolm Reynolds and his crew. Shepherd Book's entire colony on the moon Haven was slaughtered."

"Why?" Veronica demanded angrily. "I want a WHY."

The Operative took a deep breath. "A young woman by the name of River Tam was onboard _Serenity_," he replied. "She still is. She was wanted –"

"By the Parliament," Veronica interrupted. "I know. I also know that she's no longer wanted, what with the Miranda broadcast and all. But you killed people just to find her?!"

"It was IMPERATIVE that I find her," the Operative replied.

Veronica shook her head in disbelief. "Cold-blooded murder, Operative," she said quietly. "A man of God, struck down."

She looked up at him, determination in her eyes. "You will remain here when we leave," she informed him. "You will not be returning to the _Cristóbal Cólon_."

The Operative's eyes narrowed slightly. "And how exactly am I to depart this moon?"

Veronica shook her head again. "Not my problem."

* * *

Logan Echolls was asleep.

In his sleep, he dreamed. And that was rare. His sleep was usually dark and dreamless.

This was a pretty nice dream, though. He was definitely having sex in his dream. He couldn't see anything, but that was okay.

"Oh, that feels so good," he moaned. "Oh… Kaylee…"

And suddenly, it stopped. "EXCUSE ME?!"

Logan could suddenly see. That was definitely not Kaylee Frye he was having sex with.

No, it was Veronica Mars. And she looked pissed.

"Who the FUCK is Kaylee?"

Logan lifted his hands. "Veronica, calm down."

"Calm down my ass! You've been sleeping around behind my back?!"

"Veronica, we broke up nearly a year ago."

Veronica shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Whatever. As if you ever stopped loving me."

Logan shook his head, but then began laughing ruefully and shook a finger at her. "Now, that's playing dirty."

And almost instantly, her attitude went from pissed off to playful. "But I thought you liked it when I was dirty, Logan."

"Oh, believe me, I did," Logan replied. "But I've moved on."

"Hah!" Veronica laughed. "Bullshit. You haven't moved one centimeter. If I showed up on _Serenity_, you'd dump that Kaylee bitch and be back in my bed so fast your head would spin."

Now that just pissed Logan off. How dare she assume?

He shook his head. "I'm done putting up with this crap," he replied. "You're a dream. So… do me a favor, and just evaporate, or something."

And like that, she did.

* * *

The Operative seemed angry for the first time since Veronica had met him.

She really didn't care.

"Here's the deal," she told him. "You do EXACTLY as I tell you, and we'll take you back as far as the cruiser. However, that cruiser has been assigned to my use, so as soon as we encounter another Alliance ship, you're gone."

"Very well," the Operative replied. "Tell me what to do, OPERATIVE Mars."

"Get me online so I can broadcast this message," Veronica said. "I've got a missing man to find."

It took the Operative nearly three hours, even with Wallace and Weevil helping. However, he finally had enough of the dusty, broken equipment put back together to fire up the transmitters.

Veronica laughed when the computer came online – but it was a dry, humorless laugh, provoked by the sight of the Kane Software logo on a monitor. "I can't escape," she said softly. "Everywhere I go, the 09 follows me."

Once KOS (Kane Operating System) Infinity came online, the Operative brought up the broadcast program. He spent a moment configuring it, and then turned to Veronica.

"It's ready," he said. "Just press the blue button to begin transmission. Look directly into the camera. Press the blue button again to end transmission."

Veronica crossed to the chair the Operative had been sitting in, and took his place. She looked at the camera, and closed her eyes. What could she possibly say to get Logan to reply to her?

Taking a deep breath, she pushed the blue button. A red "On Air" sign appeared above her monitor.

"Your attention please," she began. "My name is Veronica Mars. I am an Operative of the Parliament, and I am searching for an individual by the name of Logan Kyle Echolls.

"Mr. Echolls is wanted for questioning as a possible witness to the murder of Lilly Kane, Registered Companion. He is a native of Londinium Federal District 09.

"Logan Echolls is five feet, ten inches tall and weighs approximately one hundred sixty-five pounds. He is currently thought to be onboard the 03 K64 Firefly class transport _Serenity_. Please take a moment to examine this picture of him."

She nodded to the Operative, who pressed another button. A picture of Logan came up on the monitor.

Veronica closed her eyes. That was the impersonal stuff out of the way. Now for the personal plea.

What could she possibly say? She hadn't seen Logan for months, and the last time they spoke, it had been antagonistic and unfortunate. But the worst part was the way she still felt about him.

She couldn't admit it. Not to herself, not to anybody. She couldn't let it affect her judgment.

She reopened her eyes, and nodded to the Operative. He pressed another button, and the feed returned to her.

"Logan, if you hear this, I need you to contact me," she said. "You have to talk to me. We have to find Lilly's killer."

She sighed. "I know you're probably still mad at me, but –"

"_VERONICA?!_"

* * *

Logan was up in the cockpit. He had snapped out of his dream "with" Veronica and awakened suddenly. It had left him feeling a little weird.

Careful not to disturb Kaylee, he had gotten out of bed and climbed out of her quarters. Turning right, he had headed toward the cockpit, barefoot.

River had been rather glad to see him – it seemed that she really needed to use the bathroom, and had been holding it for nearly an hour. And so, off she ran, leaving Logan in the cockpit by himself.

The engines were holding steady, _Serenity_'s heading normal. So, to kill time, Logan was scanning audio channels.

Then he heard something that stopped him dead. A voice. A very familiar voice.

Frowning, he reached his hand to the squelch knob to tune out all other frequencies – but just as he isolated the frequency he was looking for, the audio cut out.

However, there was an indicator on the comms panel. _Video available_, it said. Raising an eyebrow, Logan flipped a switch to put the video on the monitor –

And found himself looking at… his own face. "What the hell is this?" he whispered.

That's when his face disappeared – and he was in for a shock. Veronica Mars' face appeared on the monitor.

"_Logan, if you hear this, I need you to contact me. You have to talk to me. We have to find Lilly's killer._"

Logan couldn't move, felt like he couldn't breathe. She was ACTIVELY looking for him. She hesitated for a moment, and that snapped him out of it.

"_I know you're probably still mad at me, but –_"

Logan reached out and hit the "transmit" switch. "VERONICA?!"

He saw her face freeze and her eyes go wide. "_Logan?! Is that you?!_"

He nodded. "It's me."

Her hands flew to her face, and her eyes began to tear up. _That's an odd reaction_, he thought. "You okay?"

"_I'm sorry_," she replied. "_It's just… it's been difficult_."

"I hear you," Logan said. "So, what's this all about?"

"_I need to know where you are, Logan,_" Veronica told him. "_I need to talk to you in person._"

Logan shook his head. "I can't talk to you about Lilly's killing, Veronica. I know you're working for the Parliament."

Unbeknownst to Logan, River had reentered the cockpit. Looking at her panel, she noticed something strange. "Logan?"

"Not now, River," he snapped, annoyed at being interrupted.

Veronica's eyes went wide on the monitor. "_River? As in, River Tam?_"

Almost simultaneously, River said, "Logan, she's running a tracker through the transmission!"

Logan's eyes went wide, and his jaw dropped, but he recovered almost immediately. "Goddammit, Veronica! How could you do that?!"

Without waiting for an answer, he hit the cutoff button, ending the transmission. He turned his chair toward the windshield and angrily swept his arm across his panel, knocking Wash's dinosaurs to the floor.

River just looked at him for a moment. "That was her, wasn't it?" she finally said.

Logan clenched his jaw, staring at the blackness of space ahead. "Yes. That was her."

* * *

Veronica saw a mix of emotions cross Logan's face all at once – anger, disappointment, sadness, but worst of all, betrayal. "_Goddammit, Veronica! How could you do that?!_"

"Logan, don't –"

But she was cut off, as the monitor his face was on went to black. She clenched her fists, trying to fight down the rage she felt building.

It was no use. "FUCK!" she roared, smashing her fists against the keyboard. "Goddamn son of a bitch!"

"Calm down, V," she heard Weevil's voice saying. "Echolls ain't worth your tears."

_YES HE IS!_ her mind raged.

"We have a track on _Serenity_," the Operative said, his voice carefully emotionless. "We can depart whenever you wish."

She took a deep breath. Standing, she held her head up. "Very well," she said, her voice measured. "Let's go."


	8. Full Burn

Cristóbal Colón. Christopher Columbus. The man who had, over a thousand years before, set off on a voyage from Europe, looking to discover a westbound passage to Asia, and had instead landed in the Caribbean.

There were historical rumors that he had also been intimate with sheep.

And as Veronica Mars waited on the Alliance cruiser that was named for the Italian explorer, she was beginning to understand how one could be that bored. The last three weeks, waiting in orbit around Paquin, had been absolutely excruciating.

Both Weevil and Wallace wanted to talk to her about her online encounter with Logan, but she didn't particularly want to talk. She had a sneaking suspicion that the Operative planned to run her through with his sword when he got a chance. Of course, that would only work if she didn't blow his head off first.

And she had given it some thought.

When Logan had cut off the wave three weeks beforehand, he had thought that he was cutting off the tracking signal as well. But Mr. Universe's equipment had been far too sophisticated for that. The wave had enabled Veronica to determine _Serenity_'s unique electrical signature, and so now, as long as the transport was powered up, Veronica could track her ANYWHERE in the 'verse.

The same day she had sent out the wave, they had picked up on _Serenity_ approaching the planet Persephone, where they made a deal with an individual by the name of Badger. He had a cargo of, of all things, beagle puppies that needed to be delivered to Paquin.

When _Serenity_ left Persephone, she had departed on a rather roundabout route. Captain McManus plotted her trajectory and determined that she would reach the remote moon, populated by the rich and powerful, in approximately twenty-three days.

From Phoenix, _Cristóbal Colón_ had been able to make the journey to Paquin in a mere two days. The quarter-mile long cruiser was able to travel at a top speed of nearly 1.4 million miles per hour – far faster than _Serenity_ could ever DREAM to travel – and so it wasn't really that tedious a journey.

It was the waiting that was the killer.

_It's gonna turn me into a dirty sheep-fucker_, Veronica mused. _Cristóbal Colón _had powered down and loitered, and she was able to do practically nothing. Her computer was powered down, her electric book-reader verboten. Captain McManus did not want to take even the slightest chance that _Serenity_ might detect that they were sitting in orbit.

As a result, Veronica Mars found herself bored enough to ponder what had driven Christopher Columbus to _coitus ovis aries_.

It was not a pretty thought.

* * *

Logan and Kaylee sat on the catwalk overlooking the cargo hold. Below them, River sat in the middle of the floor and played happily with the twenty-seven beagle puppies in the hold. All just over three months old, they apparently fetched quite a pretty penny among the beautiful people.

"I used to have a dog," Logan mused, causing Kaylee to look at him in curiosity. "She was a beautiful dog."

"Really?" Kaylee asked. "What kind of dog was she?"

"She was a bull terrier," Logan replied. "Purebred, which is practically impossible to come by anymore. But somehow, my dad managed to get his hands on a purebred bull terrier when I was a toddler. The first thing I said when I saw her was, 'Wolf!'"

Kaylee smiled and laughed. "Aw, that's cute. I can just imagine, Logan Echolls, two years old, goin' all bibbledy over a dog and callin' her Wolf."

Logan turned to Kaylee and gave her a mock cross stare. "I did NOT go bibbledy over a dog," he replied. "I may have nearly crapped my pants – actually, I WAS two, so I probably did – but I did NOT go BIBBLEDY."

Kaylee giggled and kissed Logan on the cheek. "You're cute when you're angry."

He turned to face her. "You're cute all the time," he murmured, leaning in to kiss her properly.

"You're both disgusting me," came floating up from the cargo deck. They broke apart and leaned over to see River looking up at them.

"You don't HAVE to read our minds," Logan called out to her.

"I'm NOT," River called back, a note of annoyance in her voice. "You're kind of hard to ignore."

"Do you want us to go elsewhere, River?" Kaylee asked.

"That would be helpful," River replied sarcastically.

"Well, you heard the girl," Logan said, standing to his feet. He reached a hand down to Kaylee and helped her up.

By the time they reached Logan's quarters, they were both practically giggling. Before they reached his bed, Kaylee had successfully parted Logan and his shirt.

Fifteen minutes later, they both lay in Logan's bed, naked and covered in a thin film of sweat. Their combined clothes littered the floor of Logan's quarters, and a rather satisfied look had pasted itself on both of their faces.

"Logan," Kaylee murmured, tracing tiny circles on his chest with her fingernails.

"Mm-hmm?"

"What happened to Wolf?"

Logan was quiet for a moment. "She died when I was thirteen," he finally whispered.

Kaylee propped herself up on one elbow – and was alarmed to see tears on Logan's face. "Oh, Logan, I'm sorry… I didn't mean to…"

He shook his head. "No, Kaylee, it's okay," he said. "She… she was hit by a delivery shuttle. I heard the horn, and the thump… I ran outside, and she was just lying there, in the street. I… I held her, and she was whining…"

Logan's voice broke, and Kaylee realized that tears had begun to track down her face as well. "I'm so sorry…"

Logan sniffled, and wiped a hand across his face. "It's okay," he said. "It was eight years ago. It was funny, though… I probably sat there in the street for an hour… and nobody came looking for me, not my mom, not my dad, not my sister. It was Veronica who found me there in the street. When she realized what had happened, she didn't say anything – she just hugged me, and let me cry. Then she helped me take Wolf to the back yard… and bury her… she even said a prayer for her."

He sighed, and laughed bitterly. "To think that now she's trying to track me down, on behalf of the Parliament. What a reversal."

"Logan…" Kaylee paused, uncertain of what to say. "You… maybe you should talk to her. You can't run forever."

"I can't… I can't let her do to my family what her father did to the Kanes," Logan replied. "I just can't do that."

"But you know your dad did it," Kaylee whispered. "You said so yourself."

"I CAN'T, KAYLEE!" Logan shouted without warning. Kaylee, startled, jumped out of the bed and slowly began backing toward the door.

"No… I'm sorry," Logan sighed. "I'm just… I'm really wound up about this whole thing."

"I can see that," Kaylee responded uncertainly. She bent down and began to gather her clothes. "Maybe… maybe I need to let you take a little while to unwind."

"Kaylee, please don't," Logan said, realizing he was starting to sound a little desperate. He started to say something else, but he was cut off by the intercom.

"_This is the captain. We're comin' up on Paquin in a minute or two here. Logan and River, I need you on the bridge; Kaylee, make sure the engines are shiny._"

Logan sighed, and climbed out of the bed. He and Kaylee both dressed in silence, and headed out the door – Kaylee going one direction, toward the engine room, him going the other, toward the cockpit. He reached it just as River got there.

"Nice of the two of you to join me up here," Mal said, just a trace of sarcasm in his voice. "You think we can land on this rock without burnin' up or causin' any of those vermin in the hold to stink up my ship any further?"

"They're not vermin, Captain," River said, sounding irritated. "They're living, breathing creatures."

"Friend of mine on Greenleaf also apparently thinks they're good eatin', too, but I don't necessarily hold to his opinions," Mal replied. "They've made my ship smell like a barnyard, and therefore, they must be vermin."

River sighed and shook her head, checking over Logan's coordinates as he began to prepare the ship to go atmospheric. Suddenly she froze, her eyes widening.

She began to look around the cockpit, an uncertain look on her face. Mal tilted his head and gave her a curious look. "What is it, little one?"

River looked back toward the black, and pointed out. "There's something out there," she whispered.

"Whaddya mean, there's somethin' out there?" Mal asked, a tiny note of fear sounding in his voice. "We talkin' Alliance, Reavers, what?"

"It's Alliance," River said. "There's a whole cruiser out there!"

That's when Logan – well, he wouldn't say FELT her, but ever since they had been little kids, he and Veronica always seemed to innately know when the other was around, and sure enough, she was out there, not too far away.

"It's her," Logan said softly. "That's the cruiser Veronica Mars is on."

"Wait, the Operative that's after you's on an Alliance cruiser sittin' out there off our bow?!" Mal asked in surprise. "Are you kiddin' me?"

Logan wasn't quite paying attention, though. He closed his eyes. _Veronica…_ he thought. _I know you're out there…_

* * *

The bridge was silent as _Serenity_ approached the _Cristóbal Colón_. The only lights on the bridge were dim red lights that wouldn't penetrate the glare shielding on the windows.

Veronica was buckled into a seat next to Captain McManus. Weevil and Wallace were similarly secured in seats near unused science stations. Only the Operative was arrogant – _and foolish_, Veronica thought – enough to remain standing when the cruiser went to battle stations.

"Report," Captain McManus said quietly.

"Target is holding steady on course," the tactical officer replied.

"Tractor beam?"

"Ready at your command, sir."

"Stand by," McManus replied.

That was when Veronica didn't so much hear Logan's voice as feel it in her head. _Veronica_, it said. _I know you're out there._

Her eyes widened. "Captain McManus, they know we're here," she said, alarm in her voice.

McManus looked over at her in disbelief. "And how the hell could you possibly know that?"

She shook her head. "Just trust me, Captain. They know."

And just as she said that, _Serenity_'s course altered radically, taking her into a dive toward the planet. She accelerated rapidly.

"EVERYTHING UP!" McManus roared. _Cristóbal Colón_ swiftly came up to full power. "Pursue the Firefly!" he bellowed. "Shoot if you must, but shoot to DISABLE, not to kill!"

Veronica looked over at him in horror. "SHOOT?!"

McManus turned and pointed at her. "We can't afford to keep chasing them around the 'verse," he replied. "Now is the time to bring them in."

_Serenity_ began to glow orange as she passed through the upper layers of the atmosphere. A moment later, a slight orange glow began to appear around _Cristóbal Colón_'s windows as the cruiser also penetrated the atmosphere.

_Serenity_ was quick, but the cruiser was MUCH faster. The only advantage the Firefly had was that it was small and maneuverable. However, the cruiser had laser cannons along its entire length, and they began to open fire on _Serenity_.

* * *

"Jesus Christ!" Mal bellowed. "What the hell'd we ever do to them?"

"There was this little thing called the Unification War," Zoe Washburne remarked dryly. She had joined Mal, River, and Logan on the bridge a moment earlier.

"Nah, they're not still pissed about that," Mal shot back. "You think?"

Zoe just smiled at him and shook her head.

Meanwhile, Logan was doing his damnedest to keep _Serenity_ from getting hit, but it was getting harder and harder. _Cristóbal Colón_ had managed to swing about so that _Serenity_ was within range of a laser cannon at almost all times. Every time a laser bolt bounced off _Serenity_'s titanium hull, Logan and Mal both winced.

Then there was a veritable barrage of pounding on the hull. _Serenity_ jolted downward, and Logan's panel went crazy. A shower of sparks shot out the back side of the panel – and then the entire cockpit went dark.

"Oh, shit," Mal uttered.

"_Ai ya, wo-men wan-le_," Zoe added.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Mal grunted. "Logan, do you have helm control?"

"Negative, Captain," Logan replied. "We're flyin' blind."

Mal blew his breath out. "Okay, little one," he said, turning his attention to River. "You got a good enough feel for the outside that you can fly this bird remotely from engineering?"

She thought about it for a moment. "I think so," she replied, tentatively nodding her head.

"Then get on down there," Mal told her. "Zoe, you go with her!"

River disappeared down the corridor, Zoe right behind her, as _Cristóbal Colón_ peppered _Serenity_ with another volley of lasers. Then the speakers crackled into life.

"Serenity_, this is the Alliance cruiser _Cristóbal Colón," they heard. "_You are instructed to land immediately_."

"That'll be the day," Mal muttered. Picking up the intercom handset, he pushed the button, and said, "Cruiser _Cristóbal Colón_, your laser fire has sent our navigation system into plumb loco mode. We are a little bit broken at the moment."

"Serenity_, prepare for tractor beam. We'll pull you into the shuttle bay._"

"Thanks, but no," Mal replied. Flipping a switch on the intercom, he said, "River, you ready down there?"

"_Ready and waiting_," River replied.

"Alright!" Mal exulted. "Take evasive maneuvers!"

Immediately, _Serenity_ jerked to the right violently. As it did so, Logan could see the edge of the cruiser just above them. It passed behind as they flew up and above the big Alliance cruiser.

The laser fire temporarily stopped as the cruiser tried to reposition itself to fire on the little transport. "Kaylee!" Mal shouted into the intercom. "I need you ready to do a full burn!"

"_Captain?!_"

Logan's eyes went wide. "No," he gasped. "You can't do a full burn in atmo! Do you have any idea what that'll do to that cruiser?!"

"I know full well what it'll do to that _go tsao de_ cruiser," Mal replied. "It'll knock it out of the atmosphere, make it crash land. Any luck at all, it'll be destroyed."

"Captain," Logan growled through clenched teeth, "you can't do that."

"I'm sorry, but I believe that this is my ship, and I'm decidin' what we can and can't do," Mal shot back. "Right at the moment, we CAN go to full burn and knock those Alliance _hwun dan_ off our ass."

He turned his attention back to the intercom. "Kaylee, you ready?"

"_Ready, Captain, but this seems like a bad idea…_"

"Kaylee, so help me, if you don't cut the _go se_…"

"_Just give the word, Captain._"

Logan sprang out of his chair. Grabbing the intercom microphone out of Mal's hand, he shouted, "DON'T DO IT, KAYL-"

His voice was cut off by Mal's fist impacting his nose. Logan staggered backwards, collapsing against the bulkhead, blood streaming from his nose. "_Bun tyen-shung duh ee-dway-ro_," Mal snarled. "KAYLEE! NOW!"

The K64 spacedrive kicked into full power, sending its blastwave into the atmosphere. As _Serenity_ was propelled forward, the blast ignited the nitrogen and oxygen in the atmosphere for a good five mile radius. The shockwave plowed into the _Cristóbal Colón_ with the force of the fist of God.

As Logan got to his feet, _Serenity_ came about. The _Cristóbal Colón _was visible below, out of control, careening toward the ocean at high speed. Logan's breathing got ragged as he watched it plunge toward the water.

He turned to Mal, accusing eyes piercing into Captain Reynolds' soul. "You _huh choo-shung tza-jiao duh tzang huo_," he growled. "If she dies…"

Logan didn't say anything more, just took a deep breath and turned back toward the windshield.

As they stood on _Serenity_'s bridge and watched, twelve miles below, the _Cristóbal Colón_ plowed into the surface of the sea and disappeared in a giant plume of water.

* * *

_coitus ovis aries_ - Latin, roughly translates to "sex with sheep"

_ai ya wo-men wan-le_ – we're in big trouble_  
go tsao de_ – dog humping_  
hwun dan_ – bastards_  
go se_ – crap_  
bun tyen-shung duh ee-dway-ro_ – stupid inbred sack of meat_  
huh choo-shung tza-jiao duh tzang huo_ – filthy sheep-fucker


	9. Crash Into Me

_They say that sometimes, when you're in a near death situation, or when you think you're about to die, time slows down. It almost comes to a crawl, and you can see everything in amazing clarity._

_I had never believed that. I thought it was a big load of superstitious hooey. Time doesn't change – it's constant!_

_I had never believed it – up until a few minutes ago._

_You see, as soon as I realized that Logan knew we were waiting out there, in the black, Captain McManus brought the _Cristóbal Colón _online, and we followed _Serenity_ into the atmosphere of the planet Paquin._

_We had a full battery of laser cannons at our disposal. _Serenity_ had nothing to protect her except for titanium body armor._

_Captain McManus ordered the gunners to open fire on _Serenity_, over my objections. It looked as though the crew of that little Firefly were well and truly screwed._

"Serenity_," Captain McManus had called over the radio, "this is the Alliance cruiser _Cristóbal Colón_. You are instructed to land immediately."_

_I knew that if Logan was at the wheel, that would never happen. And sure enough, a moment later, a voice came back from _Serenity_._

"Cruiser _Cristóbal Colón_, your laser fire has sent our navigation system into plumb loco mode. We are a little bit broken at the moment._"_

_I heard the Operative speak, almost as if he was talking to himself. "Mal… what are you playing at?" he said, quietly._

_Captain McManus called back to _Serenity_. "_Serenity_, prepare for tractor beam. We'll pull you into the shuttle bay."_

"Thanks, but no!_" we heard Captain Reynolds reply, and then the audio channel was shut off. A moment later, the laser cannons fell silent, and then we saw why, as _Serenity_ swooped up directly in front of our nose._

"_What exactly is he doing?" Captain McManus asked rhetorically. It was quiet on the bridge for a moment, and then, we saw it._

_The glow on _Serenity_'s tail, the telltale sign of a K64 spacedrive engaging. "Oh my GOD," McManus breathed._

_And that brings us to right now. Time seems to have slowed down, almost stops. I'm looking out the windshield at the glow on the tail. Cringing at what is about to happen, I check my restraints, and see Wallace and Weevil doing the same._

_Then it happens. _Serenity_'s spacedrive goes into full burn. The blast from it ignites a ten mile wide ball of oxygen and nitrogen, which we are very much within._

_Captain McManus just barely has time to scream, "ALL HANDS, BRACE FOR IMPACT!" into the intercom before the shockwave hits us. The burning tidal wave crashes on the nose of the _Cristóbal Colón _with all the force of the fist of God. The ship violently tilts nose down. The lights go dark._

Cristóbal Colón_ has lost power. Without power, we have no way to stay airborne. The cruiser begins to dive nose downward, picking up speed as we go._

_I see the Operative lose his grip on the rail he's standing by. He tumbles to the front of the bridge. There is a sickening crack as he hits his head against the wall, and then he is still. Very still._

_I am struggling to stay conscious. The G forces are practically unbearable. My vision is beginning to tunnel, a sure sign of impending unconsciousness._

_Suddenly, the helmsman shouts that he has regained limited thruster control. He brings the nose of the cruiser up, but I fear that it is too little, too late._

_Though we are decelerating, impact on the surface of the sea is imminent. The water rushes up toward us, and then the nose pierces its surface –_

* * *

Logan watched, jaw clenched, as the _Cristóbal Colón_ crashed into the surface of the ocean. An enormous plume of water shot skyward, obscuring any further view Logan had of the Alliance cruiser.

That's when _Serenity_ pulled backward, until Logan's only view through the windshield was of the sky. Mal glanced over at Logan, and then reached for the intercom microphone.

"River, that was a beautiful piece of flyin'. Kaylee, well done. I need you two to get us to Fort Jellico, post haste. We need to unload them yappin' creatures and get a move on."

Mal Reynolds hung up the microphone. "Logan."

There was no response. "LOGAN."

Logan took a deep breath. "Yes… Captain?" He spat out the word like a filthy imprecation.

"I need you to get workin' on the pilot's station, figure out what in the hell happened under there."

Logan clenched his fists, and finally, turned to face Mal. "Yes, sir. I'll get right on that."

Mal caught the bitterness, the sarcasm in Logan's voice. "I didn't have any choice, Logan," Mal told him. "They would've blown us out of the sky."

Logan's eyes narrowed. "Respectfully, SIR, you had EVERY choice. If River was able to fly the ship from engineering, she could easily have flown us away from the situation. But instead, you chose to take the coward's way out. You got into a position where the cruiser couldn't hit us, and you sucker punched them."

Mal's face went from being apologetic to looking as if it had been carved from ice. "You're goddamn right I sucker punched them," he snarled. "That's the only way to deal with the Alliance sometimes."

He took a step toward Logan. He was close enough to smell the coppery tinge of the blood drying on Logan's face. "Now GET TO WORK."

Mal whirled and stormed out of the cockpit. Behind him, Logan stood for a moment, doing nothing. At last, he stepped behind the pilot's station and pulled off the rear panel, trying to make some sense of the mess within.

* * *

"_Damage report!"_

"_Flooding… forward decks breached… power slowly coming online…"_

"_Are we flyable?"_

"_We can fly sir, but we are not spaceworthy."_

"_Can we get to a shipyard?"_

"_We need to worry about getting this thing out of the ocean first, sir."_

"_What about him?"_

"_He's dead, sir."_

_I slowly float back to the realm of consciousness. As my eyes flicker open, I see that the bridge is bathed in a curious mixture of red emergency lights from within and daylight streaming in from outside. Captain McManus is standing, and the deck is tilted at an odd angle._

_Shaking the cobwebs from my head, I unstrap myself. I see that Weevil and Wallace are already awake, and are helping administer first aid._

_That's when I see the crumpled body of the Operative. That must've been the "him" that Captain McManus was talking about. His head is tilted at an odd angle, his eyes open in surprise._

_Oddly enough, I don't feel any particular regret about his death. Maybe if he'd been less of a douchebag._

_I open my mouth to talk, but find that it is dry. Licking my lips, I force my mouth to make my tongue wet. "Captain McManus?"_

"_Ah! Operative Mars! You're awake."_

"_What's the situation?"_

_McManus doesn't look happy. "We suffered some serious upper hull damage from the shockwave created by the Firefly. As I'm sure you're aware, we crashed in the Nordic Ocean, which caused serious flooding on some of the lower decks._

"_We've got the ship coming back online now. According to damage reports, we can apparently fly, but this cruiser won't be going back into space until she's undergone extensive repair."_

_I shake my head. I can't believe this happened. Logan must not have been flying the ship. He never would've allowed this to happen. "Casualties?"_

_McManus shakes his head. "We got extraordinarily lucky," he tells me. "We've got a dozen crew missing, and for the moment, we're assuming they're dead. We've got about fifty serious injuries, and somewhere in the neighborhood of two hundred minor injuries. However, the only confirmed death we have is the Operative there."_

_I shake my head. "Concrete proof that pride goes before the fall," I say, surprising even myself with my cynicism._

_I sigh. This is not going like it's supposed to. "Alright, Captain McManus," I continue. "I need to be able to pursue that Firefly."_

"_Very well," he replies. He steps back to the command station, and presses a button. "McManus to Shuttle Bay One. Prepare Neptune One for launch as soon as we have power back."_

"Uh, bridge, this is Shuttle Bay One. Neptune One was totaled in the crash._"_

_I close my eyes and do my best not to start cursing. Well, that's just fantastic._

"_Is there anything else down there that Operative Mars would be able to use?"_

"Yes, sir. One of the Saturn class long-range attack shuttles appears to be operable. It's got a scratch on the side from where Neptune One scraped against it during the crash, but that appears to simply be cosmetic._"_

"_How soon can Operative Mars and her associates launch?"_

"Not until after we're airborne, sir. The bay doors are underwater right at the moment._"_

_I sigh again. This is frustrating me. "Very well," Captain McManus replies. "While we're waiting, get that shuttle ready for liftoff."_

"Yes, sir._"_

* * *

By the time _Serenity_ landed at Fort Jellico, Logan had managed to restore power to the pilot's station. He was still working on getting the computer back online – that seemed to be a slightly trickier proposition.

As they were touching down, Mal came into the cockpit. "Logan," he said, "I need you to stay here with the ship."

_Translation: I don't trust you to not shoot me in the back_, Logan thought. "Not a problem, Captain," he said.

"Good," Mal said. He turned to go, but didn't leave. After a moment, he turned back to Logan.

"Listen," he said. "I don't know if you think I got some measure of enjoyment out of knockin' down that cruiser, but I didn't. People probably died there. A lot of them were probably kids. I don't take no pleasure in killin' kids."

Logan didn't say anything, just buried his head in the console and resumed work.

Mal turned again, and left this time. A few minutes later, Logan heard the sound of footsteps coming toward the cockpit – but it was somebody smaller, lighter.

"Logan?"

It was Kaylee. "Yeah?" he asked from under the console.

"Are you okay?"

Logan sighed. Pushing his body out of the console, he slid across the floor. Turning over, he got up to his knees, and looked at Kaylee.

He blew out his breath. "My friend was on that cruiser," he finally said.

Kaylee nodded. "I… know," she replied quietly.

To say Logan was shocked would've been an understatement. "You KNEW?!" he asked.

She nodded again. "River told me when she came down."

Logan's eyes narrowed, and he shook his head in disbelief. "So you're telling me that you KNEW that she was on that ship, and you STILL pushed the button."

Kaylee looked at the deck. "Yeah."

It was all Logan could do to not explode. "WHAT THE FUCK, KAYLEE?!"

When she looked back up at him, he could tell that he had pissed her off. She had fire in her eyes. She planted her hands on her hips, and said, "I had an ORDER from my CAPTAIN, Logan!"

He opened his mouth to speak, but Kaylee wasn't done. "Oh, and BY THE WAY, thanks for thinkin' of ME, down in the engine room, with laser bolts flyin' everywhere, and things blowin' up, and sparks flyin'! Thanks for checkin' on ME, to make sure that I was okay!"

The words hit home, and Logan realized what he had done. This wasn't her fault. "Kaylee…"

"No, don't you DARE 'Kaylee' me!" she growled. "It's pretty darn clear that I'll never be able to measure up to your precious Veronica, Logan."

"Oh, REALLY," Logan shot back, laughing in disbelief. "So that's what this is about? Your feelings of inferiority?!"

Kaylee looked ready to commit murder. "Well, MAYBE if the first thing out of your trash chute hadn't been to accuse me of tryin' to kill her, and MAYBE if you'd given a good goddamn about me, I wouldn't've felt like that!"

Logan threw his hands up in the air, and started to speak again, but Kaylee cut him off. "You know what, don't even," she hissed. "Why don't you just go _gun hoe-tze bee dio-se_."

And with that, she stormed out of the cockpit. "Shit," Logan breathed.

* * *

The Mule hovered over a Fort Jellico city street, headed back toward _Serenity_. The beagle pups had been delivered, and the crew had been paid. Zoe piloted the Mule, while Jayne sat on the lockbox containing the cash.

Mal and River kept a lookout for anybody who might have had dishonorable intentions toward _Serenity_'s crew, but Paquin was a fairly civilized moon – the crimes were few and far between.

As they approached the old Firefly, though, Mal heard a rather disquieting rumble. He looked at the buildings around him in alarm, and realized that they were shaking. Then, a shadow began to fall over the street.

He looked up – and his eyes went wide as he recognized the unmistakable shape of an Alliance cruiser. A very badly damaged Alliance cruiser, at that.

"Aw, _lao tyen yeh_," he breathed as the identification markings came into view. No question about it, right there in bold white print – _Union of Allied Planets, MKV Cristóbal Colón_.

"Alright, Zoe, we're in deep shit," he said. "Get us back to the ship, right now."

"Yes, sir!" Zoe replied. She pushed the throttle to the stop, doubling the Mule's speed in a heartbeat.

* * *

Logan had finally gotten the pilot's station online. He was running it through a diagnostic cycle when the intercom crackled to life.

"_Look alive, Logan!_" he heard. It was Mal Reynolds. "_We're comin' in hot! Your favorite Alliance cruiser and mine apparently has recovered enough that they're bringin' her in for a landing here. We're gonna need to get the hell out of here as quick as possible!_"

Logan's breath caught in his throat. The _Cristóbal Colón _had survived the crash?!

He hit the intercom button. "Yes, sir!" he said, feeling like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

A moment later, he felt more than heard the thump of the Mule locking into place in the hold below. Then he heard the distinctive whine of the outer cargo ramp closing. "_Go, Logan, go!_"

Logan hit the button to engage the jets, and _Serenity_ jerked upward. The transport was maybe ten feet off the ground when a volley of laser cannon shot in front of her nose.

_A warning shot_, Logan thought. He halted _Serenity_'s ascent, but kept her hovering.

Much to his dismay, though, the attacker was far more maneuverable than the cruiser had been earlier. As he watched, a Saturn-class attack shuttle swung around to face _Serenity_.

"Serenity_, this is attack shuttle Neptune Two. You will land immediately and shut down, or I will blow your asses out of the sky._"

Logan's face split into a huge grin as he heard her voice. He was about to reply when Mal came running into the cockpit. "What the hell's goin' on, Logan?"

"Well, Captain, there's a pissed-off Parliamentary Operative in that shuttle directly in front of us, and she just told me that if we don't land, she's gonna wax our asses."

Mal shook his head. "Well, I guess we don't really have a choice, do we?"

* * *

_I'm quickly finding that I'm a very big fan of the Saturn-class attack shuttle. It flies smoothly and handles a lot better than my old shuttle._

_And lo and behold, there's _Serenity_. It looks like she's about to lift off from Fort Jellico._

_I don't think so._

_I fire a laser cannon volley just over her cockpit, where the pilot will be sure to see it. "Yo, V, cool it with the guns," Weevil warns me from the back._

_The irony of that statement coming from his mouth is highly amusing._

_I swing the shuttle around in front of the Firefly-class transport, and key my microphone. "_Serenity_, this is attack shuttle Neptune Two. You will land immediately and shut down, or I will blow your asses out of the sky."_

_There's no reply for a moment, but when it finally comes, it takes my breath away._

"_Stand down, bobcat! We've got no desire to get dead."_

_Logan laughs over the radio. There's a momentary pause, and then he adds, "Besides… I can't begin to tell you how happy I am that you're alive."_

* * *

_gun hoe-tze bee dio-se _- go throw shit with the other monkeys  
_lao tyen yeh_ - Jesus Christ


	10. Fade to Black

Previously, in _I Am the Operative_:

Several months ago, Lilly Kane, registered Companion and heir to the Kane Software Empire, was found murdered in the backyard of her parents' house in the district of Neptune, Federal District 09, Londinium. General Keith Mars, head of the Londinium Federal Police, was in charge of the investigation. His investigation originally focused on Lilly's father, Jacob "Jake" Kane.

When Jake Kane's name was cleared, General Mars was reassigned to the Outer Rim Worlds in disgrace. The Kane family, wishing to put as much space between themselves and the memory of Lilly as possible, moved to Londinium's neighbor planet of Sihnon. However, the murder of Lilly Kane remained unsolved.

Wishing to bring a close to the case and thereby put the minds of the Companions' Guild at ease, the Alliance assigned one of their top investigators to the case – Parliamentary Operative Veronica Mars, who happened to be General Keith Mars' only child. Her deputies were her long-time friends and assistants, Wallace Fennel and Eli "Weevil" Navarro.

Veronica Mars identified several suspects. Her list included Lilly's brother, Duncan, who suffered from epilepsy. There was also Jake Kane himself – he had never fully approved of his daughter's path in life.

There was also famous wave actor Aaron Echolls. It had long been rumored that he was having a continuing affair with a young and highly talented Companion. Could it have been Lilly? Could Aaron have found himself jealous of her other clients, and chosen the "if I can't have her, then neither can they" course of action?

But the primary suspect was Aaron's son, Logan Echolls. He had been Lilly's boyfriend up until the day she had decided to join the Companions' Guild. He had not reacted to the news very well, and had remained jealous of her until the day she died.

The problem for Veronica there was that she and Logan had been friends for years… and had occasionally found themselves as more than just friends. They had forged a connection, a bond, after Lilly had left to become a Companion, but that connection was shaken to its very core when Lilly died.

The only person who truly knew the truth of the matter was Logan Echolls himself. He knew that his father, Aaron, had killed Lilly. However, instead of turning his father in, Logan had run. Whether he feared his father or simply refused to turn him in, nobody knew.

Veronica searched the known 'Verse for Logan, finally finding him with a crew of miscreants and cast-offs onboard a renegade freighter that had become a truly obnoxious thorn in the Alliance's side – a Firefly-class ship known as _Serenity_.

Named after the Battle of Serenity Valley, she was crewed by a motley group of Independents and mercenaries. How Logan had fallen in with them, Veronica was not quite sure. However, that motley crew had managed to cause massive damage to the Alliance cruiser she had commandeered, using an atmospheric burn to send it plummeting into the Nordic Ocean on Paquin.

Despite the crash of the MKV _Cristóbal Colón_, Veronica was still alive and well. She, along with Wallace and Weevil, had taken a Saturn-class attack shuttle and left to hunt down _Serenity_.

* * *

When Veronica located _Serenity_, she swooped quickly down on the unarmed little Firefly. It was about to lift off, but Veronica had other ideas.

"I don't think so," she muttered grimly, firing a laser volley across the nose of the freighter.

_Serenity_ jerked to a stop, hovering in mid-air. "Yo, V, cool it with the guns," Weevil said nervously.

Veronica ignored Weevil and the irony of his request. She maneuvered the Saturn around in front of the Firefly, aiming the laser cannon at the cockpit. "_Serenity_, this is attack shuttle Neptune-Two," she said over the GUARD radio channel. "You will land immediately and shut down, or I will blow your asses out of the sky."

The radio was quiet for a moment. Veronica tightened her finger around the trigger, ready to give the pilot of _Serenity_ another warning shot – when a voice came over the radio that made her heart stand still.

"_Stand down, Bobcat! We've got no desire to get dead._"

Veronica felt like her heart was suddenly pounding in her head. That was the unmistakable voice of Logan Echolls. A voice she knew so well. A voice which had whispered the sweetest things in her ear, and yet yelled the vilest things at her face.

She began to feel light-headed, and was about to reply when Logan spoke again. "_Besides, I can't begin to tell you how happy I am that you're alive._"

Veronica took a deep breath, and keyed the microphone. "Uh, copy that, _Serenity_. Please land… we'll talk about this more in a minute."

She released the button. "I take it we found Logan?" Wallace asked, a note of amusement in his voice.

"We did indeed," Veronica breathed, adjusting the Saturn's controls to allow it to begin lowering to the ground. A moment later, it gently thumped against the ground.

"Uh, Wallace, do me a favor and shut it down," Veronica asked her friend, and was out of the shuttle before he could even react.

She covered the distance between the two spacecraft just in time for _Serenity_'s loading ramp to open. Not heeding her own safety, not thinking about Alliance regulations, Veronica charged into the Firefly. Ordinarily, she'd have her badge and gun out, but not now.

Right now, she was focused on one thing, and one thing only – the tall, blonde young man standing on the other side of the cargo bay from her. Veronica briskly crossed the cargo bay to him, ignoring the seven other crew of the Firefly.

She stopped right in front of Logan. He smiled down at her, but she did not return the smile. "Hi, Bobcat," he said softly.

"You JACKASS!" she spat back at him, and then slapped him across the face as hard as she could.

Logan's head jerked back, and a look of surprise appeared on his face. Then he was in for surprise number two, as Veronica wrapped her arms around him and hugged him so tightly he thought she was going to break ribs.

Logan smiled again, letting his arms embrace Veronica. He looked at the other crew – most of them appeared amused, but Kaylee just appeared mad. Mad as hell, in fact.

She shot Logan a glance of pure hatred, and then stalked off toward the engine room. "Oh, Christ," Mal groaned, following Kaylee toward the engine room.

Logan held Veronica for another minute, before she finally pulled away. "We need to talk," she said softly, looking up at him.

"Yeah," he replied, nodding solemnly. "I'd say that we do."

* * *

_I knew Lilly wanted to go places. I just never knew what sort of ambitions she had._

_It seems that she had caught Jake with a Companion. He was scared shitless, afraid that she would tell Celeste. That would be the end of Jake – he had signed a fairly weighty pre-nuptial agreement with Celeste._

_However, far from threatening to tell Celeste about Jake's infidelity, Lilly had instead been intrigued by the life of a Companion. She had contacted the Companion's Guild. After being told that apprentices were usually brought into the Guild at 14, Lilly had reacted strongly. She set out to prove herself to the Guild._

_Again, she never told me about any of this. As a matter of fact, she didn't tell me anything until the day she left for Sihnon._

_I couldn't believe it. She had been my girlfriend for nearly two years, and now she was running off to go be… go be a WHORE. It nearly made me sick to my stomach._

_It was after she left that I turned to you. After experiencing what felt like such betrayal from Lilly, I wanted her polar opposite. I found that in you – somebody who was calm, collected – still innocent. You were so easy to fall in love with so quickly._

_But that got taken away from me, too – after Lilly died, and your dad started investigating Jake Kane. It made me physically ill to even think of the name "Mars". __**But the worst was yet to come**__._

_You see, about a month after Lilly's murder, I was in the pool house at my father's estate. I stumbled across what looked like some sort of video recording system. I followed it to its source, where I found hundreds of videos of my father having sex with women – including, to my horror, at least a dozen of him with Lilly._

_Most of them were dated after she had become a Companion, but two were dated from before she became a Companion – when she was still dating me. There was one, though – one where she found the camera. She ran._

_I was enraged. I confronted my father. I tore him a new one. For the first time in my life, I saw fear on the face of Aaron Echolls. So intense was the confrontation that he ended up blurting out that he had "killed the little skank."_

_I couldn't be there any longer. I couldn't be around the place where Lilly had died. I couldn't be around my father, but I was damned if I was going to turn him over to Colonel Don Lamb and his incompetent cadre of Federal Police. There was no way they'd ever get a conviction._

_And that's why I ran. I thought that if I ran to the Outer Rim, I could put that all behind me and start over. I heard about the Miranda broadwave, and then I heard that _Serenity_'s pilot had been killed. I decided this was the best opportunity for me to have a fresh start_.

_For the last two months, I've been _Serenity_'s pilot. During that time, I sort of struck up a relationship with _Serenity_'s engineer – Kaywinnit Lee Frye. However, earlier today, after your cruiser crashed, we had something of a falling out – I thought you had been killed, and I accused her of being complicit. She, on the other hand, accused me of still being in love with you and not giving a rat's ass about her._

_Her accusation wasn't entirely true. I do give a rat's ass about her. The problem is… she was right about the way I feel about you._

* * *

Veronica sighed. "Logan, I can't deal with this right now," she said quietly.

"I know," Logan replied. "But I needed you to know."

Veronica nodded wordlessly. "Alright. But we've got much bigger things to deal with. We need to get you to Londinium –"

"No."

Veronica took a deep breath. "Logan. You HAVE to go back. You HAVE to tell the Federal Police. It doesn't have to be Colonel Lamb. You can talk to my dad. You can talk to Major Sacks or Captain D'Amato, for all I care. The thing is, you HAVE to tell somebody in the Federal Police."

Logan shook his head. "I can't do that, Veronica. I told you that."

Veronica began to seethe with anger. Unfortunately, she also started to tear up in frustration. "Goddammit, Logan! Can't you stop being a total _hùndàn_ for three seconds and just do this for me?" She stomped a foot against the floor. "If you don't, I'm going to have to arrest you! Do you want me to do that, 'cause I sure as hell don't WANT to do it!"

Logan was at a loss for words. "I – I'm sorry… Veronica, I'm sorry, I don't want to hurt you – it's just, he's my father –"

"And he killed Lilly!" Veronica shouted. "HE KILLED LILLY! Don't you want to see justice done for her?"

"Of course I do!" Logan yelled back. "But I'd also appreciate it if you'd just _gu__ǎ__n n__ǐ__ zìj__ǐ__ de sh__ì_ for ONCE in your goddamn life!"

"I CAN'T MIND MY OWN BUSINESS, LOGAN! I'M A PARLIAMENTARY OPERATIVE!"

* * *

_I seriously cannot deal with Logan Echolls sometimes. He's a psychotic, pig-headed jackass from hell. I understand – Aaron's his father. But he KILLED Lilly! He has to turn him in!_

_Well, no, actually, he doesn't. What he told me is more than enough for a judge to issue a warrant for Aaron Echolls' arrest. But I don't want to do that to Logan. I don't want him to hate me any more than he already does._

_I don't think I could take it if he did. The fact that I already have tears running down my face, the fact that I'm screaming at him – it's all because of the way he's looking at me right now._

_He's breaking my heart._

* * *

Logan instantly regretted telling Veronica to mind her own business. The way her face crumpled, the look she gave him – it was enough to pierce his soul.

"Aw, dammit," he muttered, standing and crossing the room to her. "Veronica – listen, I didn't –"

"Fuck off!" she growled, pushing him away as he tried to hug her.

"I will NOT," he replied, pulling her to him again. She didn't resist this time. "I spent the last two months running away from you. I can't do that anymore."

Logan felt Veronica sob against his chest. "Dammit, Logan," she whispered. "I can't do this. I can't take the way you play with my emotions."

Logan closed his eyes and exhaled slowly. She couldn't do this? HE couldn't do this anymore. He couldn't keep messing with her heart.

That's when Logan realized just how much he was still in love with Veronica Mars. "Okay," he whispered, without even realizing what he was saying.

She looked up at him. "Okay?"

He nodded. "I'll go."

Veronica's eyes widened, and she sighed. "Thank you, Logan," she said softly, hugging him tightly.

He smiled slightly. "But there's something I have to take care of first."

* * *

_hùndàn - _jackass  
_gu__ǎ__n n__ǐ__ zìj__ǐ__ de sh__ì_ - mind your own damn business


	11. A Note from the Author

Hey there everybody -

I have to admit, I forgot about this story a long time ago. That is, in large part, due to the fact that I haven't updated it in over two years.

However, I got a review on the story TODAY, from somebody who just happened to stumble across it. After seeing the review, I decided – what the heck, why not go back and read through it? I've done that with a couple of my old _Chuck_ stories recently, and not only was it like reading a new story, but it really brought them back to life for me.

And let me tell you – that did the same thing for this one. Now, my _Firefly_ and _Veronica Mars_ are both a little rusty – it's been well over a year since I watched EITHER of them – and since I last updated this story, I have dove headfirst into a Master's program at Wake Forest University, so I don't have a lot of time on my hands.

That having been said... I think I'm going to need to brush off the rust and make a little time over Thanksgiving break, because I think this story needs a conclusion. I am not FOX, and I am not the CW, and therefore, I do not cancel stories in need of a conclusion before their time.

So, look for an update before the end of the month! You can take it to the bank.

Jimmy "The Notorious JMG" Gawne  
Winston-Salem, North Carolina  
November 12th, 2010


End file.
